Nonsensical Series
by Christopher Scott
Summary: A mixed bag of story ideas and other strange things that come to mind, this time with RWBY! Generally just a bunch of things I'll be writing for RWBY whenever an idea comes to mind. Hope you all enjoy. truly, Christopher Scott: A Gentleman Thief
1. Fractured Fairy Tales

Fractured Fairy Tales

I don't own RWBY or any of the fairy tales referenced within this Episode (The Pied Piper, The Snow Queen, Puss in Boots, and The Tinderbox). To those of you who are familiar with my Naruto Shot collection called the Nonsensical Gallery, this is the same thing, but for RWBY.

Weiss could hear the flute as she approached the clearing. It played a soft, intoxicating tune, which seemed almost too inviting. Slowly, she raised her eyepatch, allowing the eye that held the magic mirror shard to examine the clearing as she slowly began to get a closer look.

There, in the tree, sat the red-hooded girl from the first day, playing a red and black flute. That, however, was the least of the interesting parts of the situation. What had Weiss's attention was the crowd of Grimm that stood perfectly still as she played her tune, the creatures looking to Weiss's cursed eye like twisted and warped shadows, made up of countless sins. And then, without warning, the girl, Ruby, she recalled, leapt off the branch she was sitting upon, shoving the flute onto a similarly-colored rifle, which she then converted into a giant rifle before she began to tear through the Grimm with a disturbing speed and fluidity, occasionally vanishing in a stream of rose petals, the sound of large caliber bullets echoing through the air.

And yet the petals seemed wilted to Weiss's cursed eye, like whatever sins she was bearing were tainting the petals. Given the way the cursed mirror worked, she suspected that was exactly the case, and quickly replaced they eyepatch. Drawing Myrtenaster, she began to work to execute some of them, herself, moving with the grace and elegance that her sister had instilled in her since she was a little girl. When the beasts were dispatched, and Ruby was once again still, Weiss turned to look at her, only for her eye to lock onto Ruby's own.

"I guess we're partners, now," Ruby noted with a smile as she converted her scythe first into a rifle, then withdrew the flute, sliding the rifle behind her back into a holster.

"I suppose so," Weiss said primly, taking care to adjust her eyepatch to ensure that she didn't see what Ruby looked like to her other eye before she turned to walk towards the objective, "Try to not fall behind."

"That won't be a problem," Ruby said from where she was standing about a yard ahead of Weiss already, "I'm fast."

"Let's get a move on, then," Weiss said.

"What did you see?"

The question stopped Weiss dead in her tracks.

"Your eye," Ruby said, "The one under the patch. You see things through it, don't you? Something different than from how your good eye works."

"How can you tell?"

"Lucky guess," Ruby replied, "You keep it covered, but I saw it when I was going through the Grimm."

"Speaking of which," Weiss noted, "I've never seen anyone enchant the Grimm like that…"

"I'll tell you my secret if you tell me yours," Ruby replied with a shrug.

"When I was a young girl, there was an enchanted mirror in my family's house," Weiss explained as they walked onward "One day, it burst, and everyone assumed that the enchantment wore off, but it turned out that what happened was that the mirror's enchantment remained in a single shard. This shard was embedded in my eye, though, you may be surprised to know that the scar there has nothing to do with that. From that moment on, I could see the true ugliness in the world. I don't like it. So, eyepatch. What about you?"

"A magical flute player came into town," Ruby shrugged, "We were having a rat problem, he got rid of them with his flute. After the city council in Patch paid him, but before he left, I asked him to teach me how to do stuff like that. He agreed. He taught me how to do the magic, then I had to learn how to play the flute properly. After a while, I made my own songs, and have been playing ever since."

"And that translates to wilting roses how, exactly?"

"Everything has a price," Ruby shrugged, "Like he said to me when I asked, 'Everything has a fee. If they refuse to pay yours, take your fee some other way.' I'm pretty sure the magic taints people, somehow."

"That sounds unbelievable, but I have a shard of a magic mirror in my eye, so who am I to judge? Let's move."

* * *

Yang wasn't sure of what to make of the black-haired girl who had killed the last of the two Ursas that she'd been fighting.

"So, if you give me a fish after all of this is said and done, I will be the best possible partner you will ever have," she told her sincerely, "And, I will tell you a fact about my dark, mysterious backstory."

"What if I give you three lien, now?" Yang replied, "That should give you enough for fish."

"Sold," Blake replied. Once Yang passed her the money, she said, "Alright. From here on, I'll be the best possible partner you will ever have."

"And the dark, mysterious backstory?" Yang asked.

"I have a dark, mysterious backstory," she replied freely.

"Oh, I walked right into that one," Yang noted with a slight chuckle as she pulled out what looked like a steampunk lighter, "Mind if I call us a lift?"

"Feel free," Blake shrugged, "Don't know how that's going to do that, but whatever works for you."

"Let's see…" Yang mused, "Zwei would be too big to maneuver and Drei would be way too big."

Striking the tinderbox once, Yang grinned as a giant corgi, taller than an Ursa appeared.

"What the hell is that?" Blake asked.

"A corgi," Yang said, climbing up, then holding out a hand to Blake, "Come on."

"I'm not getting on that thing," Blake said adamantly.

"I'll buy you fresh salmon next time we go shopping if you get on."

"Sold," Blake replied, taking Yang's outstretched hand, "But if it bites me, I'll make your life a living hell."

"Deal," Yang smirked as she pulled Black onto the giant corgi, "Let's go, Ein."

"How did you even get this thing?" Blake asked.

"I fought a witch to the death," Yang replied. "I won."

"Fair enough," Blake shrugged, before holding on tight.

"You're not going to question it?"

"I was hired to be your partner," Blake replied, "Not to force you to talk if you don't want to."

"Fair enough," Yang shrugged.

* * *

It was later that the pair came across Ruby and Weiss, along with Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren, when they were all at the mercy of a Nevermore and a Death Stalker.

"Let's move!" Ruby called out, gesturing towards the ruins with her scythe, "We've just got to make it to the top of the cliffs! Yang, cover!"

"Well, here goes nothing," Yang nodded, taking out her tinderbox.

"I don't think an Ursa-sized dog is going to help here," Blake noted.

"I was actually going to use Zwei," Yang said, striking the tinderbox twice times, summoning a massive corgi that was about the size of the Death Stalker, which proceeded to leap onto the beast and use it as a springboard to leap up and drag down the Nevermore.

As this happened, Blake glanced at the knight in Yang's sister's hand and the rook in her own, before glancing at the knight in the blond boy's hand.

The giant corgi battled the Nevermore, pushing it towards the ruins at the cliff's edge, while the rest of them fought the Death Stalker as best they could, following the battle even as they battled the giant scorpion.

"Change of plans! Yang, call him back!" Ruby suddenly called out, "We'll take the Nevermore! You four take the Death Stalker!"

Pocketing the knight she'd taken, Blake moved away from Jaune's group and drew Gambol Shroud, joining up with her partner and her partner's sister.

"On my mark," Ruby said as the colossal beast flew towards them, "Weiss, find a weakness! Blake, Yang, cover fire!"

Sighing, Weiss removed her eyepatch and observed the twisted abomination that now barely resembled a bird to her. "The wings repaired themselves, but the eyes are still damaged from the fight with the giant dog!"

"Got it!" Ruby said, unscrewing her flute from Crescent Rose's rifle form, "Blake, Yang, bring it my way!"

"What?!" Blake asked in shock.

"Just do it!" Ruby ordered. Blake glanced at Yang, who simply nodded in agreement.

As they directed the beast by shooting at its possible paths, save straight ahead, Ruby began to play that intoxicating tune. With her eyepatch still up, Weiss could almost see the music notes boring into the Grimm, causing it to slow down, as if under a trance, before it collapsed to the ground on the pathway they were all standing on, its weight causing the stone to shift.

"Weiss, hold it down!" Ruby said, before returning to playing her haunting tune.

In response, Weiss used ice glyphs to pin down the tail, followed by the shoulders of the wings, and the mouth, for good measure. Once it was pinned, Ruby stopped playing, though the creature's trance had yet to break.

"Yang, Blake, the eyes!" she ordered.

Understanding what she wanted, Yang sped forward on Ember Cecilia and struck the eyes with several punches, firing round after round until the eyes on her side of the beast were of no more use to the creature. Blake, in turn, was practically a shadow as she used her blades to dispatch the remaining eyes. As she flipped away, the creature came to its senses, struggling to break free as Ruby reattached the flute and converted Crescent Rose to its scythe form.

"Get on," Ruby ordered, leaping onto the creature's back. Not fully sure why, the others found themselves complying. "Hold on tight," Ruby ordered, before shooting the restraints. Once that had happened, the Nevermore soared into the air, clearly trying to get them off of it as it flew, but Ruby held the blade of Crescent Rose to its throat, causing it to fly up to get away from the pain she was inflicting upon it. Realizing what she was doing, Blake went to the tail and fired at the side, causing the Nevermore to turn towards the cliff as it rose to just above the cliff's height, moving forward as it did so.

When the head and shoulders were just a few feet above the clifftop, Ruby said, "Jump!"

Grabbing Blake and Weiss, Yang rushed to the head and leapt off, while Ruby swung Crescent rose around so that it was hanging on the back of the Nevermore's neck as she clung to the handle. Smirking to the trio, Ruby loaded a clip of Gravity Dust rounds and pulled the trigger, landing on her feet while the head separated from the Grimm's body.

"Looks like it lost its head," Yang chuckled.

"Well, at least it's over," Weiss said, setting her eyepatch back into place.

* * *

"Finally: Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long, through quick thinking and quick hands, you have all arrived with the Knight piece," Ozpin said, glancing at Blake in a manner that told her that he knew what she had done, "You are now Team RWBY, led by Ruby Rose."

Once the pair had left the stage, Ozpin turned to Glynda and said, "This team should prove interesting, to say the least."


	2. Don't Fear the Reaper

Don't Fear the Reaper

I don't own RWBY. This Episode is unrelated to the previous Episode. I've just always wanted to write something like this.

"That was pretty close," Weiss heard a cheerful voice say, "Lucky you."

"Who are you?" Weiss demanded, turning to see a girl whose face was hidden in the shadows of a tattered, red-hooded cape. In her hand, meanwhile, was a weapon that looked like a cross between a scythe and some sort of heavily mechanized gun.

"The outfit, the scythe, and the fact that you barely managed to avoid that Ursa's attack didn't give it away, Weiss Schnee?" the girl asked.

"Should I know you?" Weiss asked.

"Everyone does," she replied cheerfully, "I've been everywhere. I'm in the barb of a Death Stalker's tail, the fangs of a Manticore, the caress of a bullet, and, my personal favorite, the edge of a blade."

"Why don't you give me a name, instead of pointless metaphors," Weiss asked dryly.

"Come on!" the girl sighed, "You know who I am. It's on the tip of your tongue and in the back of your mind every time you hunt."

"Excuse me?" a familiar voice called out, catching Weiss and the girl's attention. Turning, they saw Penny Polendina, Weiss's assigned partner for this mission, approaching, "Who are you?"

"An admirer of yours, Penny Polendina," the girl replied freely, before a silver gleam became apparent where her eyes were hidden in shadows, "You are the most elegantly crafted work of art I've ever seen, and yet you're also a real person! You have a soul and everything! Do you have any idea how amazing that is?!"

"That's the closest thing she's given to an answer, Penny," Weiss noted.

"That's not true!" the girl protested, "I told you exactly who I was. You just keep ignoring the answer!"

"You are not on any database," Penny noted carefully, "Yet you seem to possess knowledge that only a select few possess."

"I was in the minds of the people when you were conceived," she replied, "They had such beautiful plans, and you are the most beautiful person I've ever seen, but I don't think I'll be getting you anytime soon. I wish I could hang out with you two more, but I'm hunting, too."

"Who or what is your quarry?" Penny asked.

"The undying," she replied freely, "One to judge, and one to punish. Not you. You've got time. The two I'm looking for? They aren't exactly alive. They were gods, once. Well, a god and a goddess. They caused a big mess, so I was called in. They ran, and I've been chasing them ever since."

"What are you even talking about?" Weiss demanded, only to pause, "You… You think you're Death, don't you?"

"Who else could I be?" she shrugged, "Right now, in a hospital in Atlas, the Nicholas Schnee Memorial Hospital, to be precise, there are seventeen people dying of sickness, age, and wounds that couldn't be treated. One of them was gored by a Boarbatusk. His ancestors are proudly waiting for him in the Lordless Hall."

Penny stared blankly ahead for a few seconds, reminding Weiss of the fact that Penny was neither human nor faunus, before she said, "The reports were filed ten seconds after the end of her statement., Save the Lordless Hall comment. I have no solid context for that, outside of some religious texts."

"Elaborate," Weiss said, her patience already being tested by this strange girl.

"According to a religion in Anima and certain sections of the island of Patch," Penny explained, "There is a Feast Hall, where the righteous dead who fell in combat. The Lord of the Hall, an unnamed entity, does not sit there any longer, and the chair upon which he sat is eternally empty."

"That's the guy I'm here to judge," the girl said, running a pale hand along the flat of the blade of her scythe, "I've got my sister and her love searching, as well, but, I can't be everywhere physically, even if I am omnipresent. I only have the one body."

"If we were to believe you, who exactly are these two people, and where are they?" Weiss asked.

"The Lord of the Hall is wandering," she replied, "Every single time I almost catch him, but then he dies before I can get him, and I have to find the remaining bits from wherever he wound up after that. The Other One, though? She's hiding herself somewhere that there's no deaths occurring."

"Who is the Other One?" Weiss demanded.

"There were two beings, once," Penny said, clearly pulling up information as she spoke, "Twins of Light and Darkness. Together, they created two races, humans, and faunus. The being of light adored their creations, and sought to teach them. The being of darkness, however, grew to disdain them. And so the creatures of Grimm were created. In turn, he taught humans to unlock their Aura."

"Eventually, you discovered Dust," the mysterious girl said, pulling back her hood to reveal a youthful face and glowing silver eyes, "Everything seemed to be reaching a balance. The others all thought that things were going to calm down Then he banned her from entering the Hall. At that point, there was no denying there was a war coming. The Hall of the Valiant Dead was supposed to be free to all gods. They began to gather gods and goddesses to their sides. The only neutral parties were me, since I'm supposed to be an impartial judge, my sister, the sun, and the goddess of the night sky. Gods and the souls of so many heroes and heroines fought, until there was so little left. We all knew it wouldn't be fixed when they killed the Moon. I was supposed to judge. I did judge the Other One, but she fled, and he followed her before we could stop them. I've been looking for them ever since…"

"And you expect us to believe that?" Weiss asked.

"Nope!" she replied, "But he's close and I'm going to get him before he manages to get away again. I just thought you were close, but you barely managed to get that Ursa at the last minute. Well, I'll see you, eventually, friends!"

With that, the girl pulled up her hood and vanished in a stream of blood-red rose petals.

"Follow her," Weiss said, forming a glyph to allow her to speed ahead, "We need to protect whoever she's deluded herself into killing."

Rocket wings sprouted out of Penny's back as she wordlessly followed, clearly trying to figure something out.

"What are you thinking?" Weiss asked as they raced behind the trail of petals, barely able to keep up.

"She had no means of knowing who had died in Atlas," Penny said, "Nor should she have known about me."

"She's probably just some hacker," Weiss replied, "Right now, we need to focus on saving whoever she's planning on killing."

Penny was silent at that, but she continued down her path, that calculating gleam still in her eyes.

* * *

When they finally caught up to the trail of petals, they saw that the girl had her scythe in a configuration that looked like a war-scythe as she lightly held the tip under the chin of what looked like a farm boy.

"I've finally caught up to you, old friend," the girl said, and Weiss had the strangest feeling that she was grinning behind the shadows of her hood, yet all she could see was the gleam of silver in her eyes, "You had me chasing you all across the continent. There've been so many incarnations, I'm not even sure that you're even remotely the same. But, let's check."

"Death?" the boy asked, staring at her in shock, before freezing, "Why did I call you that?"

"You've been breaking pieces off yourself…" she noted in what sounded like a concerned tone, not moving her blade a millimeter.

"Lower your weapon!" Weiss ordered, drawing Myrtenaster.

"I have my job to do," she said.

"Lower. Your weapon," Weiss ordered flatly, "Or we will treat you as a threat."

"Stand down," Penny ordered, her swords rising out of her back, "Or we will be forced to engage in combat."

The girl stared blankly at them, from what they could tell from the glow of her eyes, before she collapsed her scythe into a rifle. Once she had done so, she placed it within her cloak, causing it to seemingly vanish.

"I'm still going to judge him," she said plainly, her eyes pinning the boy in place.

Slowly, she reached for her hood, drawing it back to reveal, not the face that they had seen before, but nothing, save two glowing silver lights that Weiss could barely stand to look at. Beside her, Penny seemed unconcerned, and the boy flinched but seemed otherwise unchanged.

Eventually, Death pulled her hood back up, the glow in her eyes fading back to what they had seen previously. After a moment, she pulled her hood back again, revealing the same face from before.

"You're… too broken, old friend," she said, "Even if we were to find everything you cut off and put it back, you'd still be too far gone. This is your last go-around."

"She's still out there," the boy protested, "I have to stop her. Who do I have to stop?"

"The Other One," she said, "You, Oscar Pine, are not quite who you used to be. So, you'll get the rest of your time here, however long it lasts, before you're done. But, you're coming with me. You're going to help me find her, and I will finish what I've needed to do all this time…"

"The… Maidens…" he murmured, "Something about Maidens. Four of them… What is it?"

"We'll find them, in time," she replied, "All six of us."

"Six?" Weiss asked.

"Me, you three, my sister, and the night," she said, "We're meeting them at a tavern in a nearby village."

"We didn't volunteer for this," Weiss protested.

"Well, it's either that, or let the world end," she replied cheerfully, "Because she wants to kill off humanity and faunuskind."

"I was designed to save the world!" Penny said, "I am combat ready!"

"I wish I didn't believe you," Weiss said, "But I saw… Whatever it is that you did to your head, so I know something's up… I guess we don't have much of a choice."

"That's the spirit!" Death said, "Let's move!"

* * *

It was some time later when the group finally arrived at the tavern, only to see a purple-eyed girl with long blond hair standing beside a black-haired, amber-eyed faunus with catlike ears, who was reading a book despite the sun having already gone down.

"Sister!" Death greeted, cheerfully, "Yin! I'm so happy to see you!"

"It's Blake, this time," the black-haired one said, "I see you've found him."

"He's going to help us find her," Death replied.

"Are you sure we can trust him?" her sister asked.

"He's only got some of the remains," she replied, "He's tattered, and broken off pieces of himself. This is the last time he'll incarnate at all, Yang."

"If you say so," she replied, "And who are these two?"

"Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Corporation and a Huntress," she replied, "And Penny Polendina, a beautiful girl who has as much soul as any other person," Death replied freely, "They tried to stop me when they thought I was just a crazy lady who was going to kill someone, so I'm trusting them to work with us. He's called, Oscar, by the way."

"Fair enough," Yang replied, "I'm Yang, the sun goddess, and that's my other half, Blake, who's the goddess of the Night."

"Nice to meet you all," Blake said, glancing at them over the cover of her book before returning her attention to the page she was on.

"So, the sun goddess is called 'Yang,'" Penny said, turning towards Death, "And the night goddess is called 'Blake.' This means that you all have names that you identify by. What do we call you?"

"You can call me Ruby," she replied, "Ruby Rose. Sounds nice, right?"


	3. The Castle in the Forest

The Castle in the Forest

I don't own RWBY. This Episode is unrelated to any other episode in the Series.

"Alright. We've got the pieces," Yang said, "Let's move, people. Before the Grimm kill us would be good, but if you've got any other suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them!"

It was, of course, in that moment that the Death Stalker that had been chasing Nora and Ren arrived, followed by the Nevermore that had been stalking Blake and Yang.

"Any ideas?" Blake asked, causing Yang to look around, before noticing something.

"Those ruins!" she called out, pointing at what looked vaguely like a marginally solid castle that would someday remember to collapse upon itself, "We can regroup there!"

Once the others had gotten inside, Yang quickly followed them in and shut the crooked door behind her.

"Oh, thank goodness!" a voice said as a boy covered from head to foot in body-concealing armor, "I didn't think anyone would come this way, let alone anyone dressed with such bright colors! Who are you?"

"I'm Yang, this is Blake, and they're Nora and Ren," Yang said, gesturing at them one by one.

"Jaune Arc," he replied cheerfully, "I was starting to worry that I wasn't ever going to see another person again!"

"I'm sure Ozpin'd go looking for you," Yang assured him.

"Probably," he acknowledged, "He's never been one for leaving a man behind."

"Speaking of," Yang said, "I don't suppose you've got your partner handy?"

The armored head tilted before realization seemed to strike him.

"Oh!" he said, "Penny!"

"Upstairs!" a voice seemed to say from everywhere, "I got stuck again."

"I've told you that we can't get it open so many times now!" he called out, before turning towards the group, "Can you guys help me?"

"Sure!" Nora said as they all began to follow him up the stairs.

"Are you alright?" Blake asked.

"Yeah," Jaune replied, "Why do you ask?"

"You're limping…"

"Oh. Yeah," he said, "My left leg's a bit banged up. It's not too bad, though."

"If you say so," Blake said, before they finally arrived at a door, where a red-haired girl with almost glowing green eyes stood with her arm stuck in a door.

"Salutations!" the girl greeted them all cheerfully.

"I told you not to try to break it open," Jaune said, "Alright. I'll pull. Hopefully, it won't take too long this time…"

"Need a hand?" Yang asked.

"Oh… all I could get," Jaune replied tiredly, "Penny, these people are Yang, Blake, Ren, and Nora. They wandered in here."

Once each of them had grabbed her arm, which felt as cold and solid as steel, they all began to pull, only for the door, itself to open, revealing a hall with a chamber at the end.

"My god…" Jaune whispered, slowly walking into the room, "You guys actually opened it…"

"It is finally done!" the girl, Penny, most likely, cheered, "Sensational! It has been so troublesome having this one section cut off! Do you have any idea what it is like to be incomplete?"

"No," Jaune said dryly, tapping his chest to make the strangely off-putting clank, "I definitely don't know what that's like…"

"My apologies, Friend Jaune," Penny said, "I had forgotten."

"Not your fault," he shrugged, before turning towards the four students, "By the way, did the War finally end?"

"Which war?" Blake asked as Penny rushed towards the strange chamber.

"The War," he said, following Penny into the hall, "The one with Mantle and Mistral?"

"That was eighty years ago…" Nora said as the group followed them with concern on all of their faces, "Did you hit your head or something?"

"Wouldn't do much to me if I did," Jaune said, knocking on his helmet, which clanged in that same odd way that the rest of him did, "Not much to scramble in here."

"Insulting yourself only leads to you messing up on the battlefield," Ren noted, "Maybe you shouldn't call yourself empty-headed."

"But I'm literally empty-headed," Jaune said, grabbing his helmet, "See?"

"The chamber is open!" Penny shouted, causing him to pause before he could remove it.

"It what?" he asked.

"It's open!" she repeated, the double doors opening at her words.

At that, Jaune began to limp quickly towards the door, his left leg clanging much more noisily than the right.

The four who had just entered the castel, confused by the entire situation and worried for the clearly not all-there boy in the armor and his somewhat off-putting partner, followed them in.

It was there that they saw four dust-covered statues, one of which had a strange sense of familiarity to the group.

To the far right, sitting upon an ornate throne that looked to be made of diamond, was a girl in a dress, her eyes shut as if in concentration, with a single scar running along the left eye, a large, rusted rapier in her left hand. Beside her, to her left, stood what looked like a young woman dressed in a light-weight armor, wielding a javelin that looked to be similarly rusted steel. On the right hand of the throne, however, was the one that truly drew their eye. A friendly face beneath a hood attached to a cape that looked almost like it was in motion, while her wicked, rusted scythe somehow still gleamed in the light of candles that probably shouldn't have been burning in ruins like this. This one, unlike the other two, looked as if it's motionlessness was wholly unnatural, like the person it depicted was never supposed to be still.

While the other two looked to be at relative ease, that statue looked restless.

That, however, was less concerning that Jaune kneeling before the one to the left of the throne.

"What are you doing?" Yang asked.

"She's my patron," he replied simply as he rose to his feet, "And the reason I'm here in the first place."

"Who are these three?" Blake asked curiously.

"This is Pyrrha, Goddess of War and Heroes and Heroines," Jaune said, "the one on the throne's Weiss, Goddess of Wisdom and Magic, She of Countless Names."

"Cool! And who's the one with the scythe?" Nora asked.

"That would be Ruby, the Huntress," he said, "She Who Commands the Great Hunt."

"I'm guessing she's the Goddess of Huntsmen and Huntresses?" Blake asked.

"Don't say that!" Jaune said in a whispered hiss, "No one calls her that."

"Isn't it all just superstition anyway?" Blake asked.

"I don't know. Are ghosts superstition?" Jaune asked.

"Yes," Blake said.

"If you say so," Jaune shrugged, before his left leg fell off, causing him to crash to the ground, falling entirely to pieces.

"Oh dear!" Penny exclaimed, rushing to gather the pieces together, "Not again!"

"I really need to get another one of those one of these days…" Jaune's helmet noted, "Just hand me Crocea Mors…"

Penny rushed to the corner of the room with one of the gauntlets, where a dust-covered sword and sheath were lying, cobwebs clinging to it. Wordlessly, she placed the sword's hilt in the gauntlet's hand, causing the pieces of the armor to fly back together, now looking much more solidly put-together once they had reunited.

"Still don't believe in ghosts?" Jaune asked.

"Technically, Jaune," a polite voice noted, "You're a Heroic Spirit…"

Everyone turned towards the source of the voice, seeing color return to the visage of the one he called Pyrrha. Jaune, for his part, returned to a kneeling position as she dusted herself off, stretching her arms and legs as she stepped forward.

"Hello!" she greeted, the rust fading from her spear as it shifted to a short sword, then a rifle, then back to a javelin, "It has been some time since we were free. Jaune, please stand up. I've told you that you don't need to kneel before me."

"So, what exactly are you?" Nora asked, "What's the difference between a ghost and a heroic spirit?"

"Heroic Spirits are called before they die," Pyrrha explained, "I chose Jaune Arc because, despite having little training, he was capable of surviving in battle, and managed to survive on luck and his wits, no mean feat during the Great War. He was meant to be blessed, but the wretch, Salem, had arranged for one faction in what you call the Great War to bind the castle shut, with us trapped within its walls. Without being released, Jaune was bound to his armor while his sword, that which was blessed to keep his body from being destroyed, was locked away from him."

As if on cue, Jaune removed his helmet, revealing a blond haired, blue-eyed young man.

"Welcome, Yang Xiao Long, Blake Belladonna, Lie Ren, and Nora Valkyrie," a commanding voice said from the throne, drawing everyone's attention to the pale girl with the scar on her eye, her rapier shining silver, with six chambers that looked like they held different varieties of Dust, "You have all of our thanks for freeing us from this chamber. As none of you were chosen, you were not trapped by the binding as we were."

"Who bound you, and how?" Yang asked, deciding to question how she knew their full names later.

"An army that will never do battle in this land again," the one known as Weiss replied with a dismissive wave of her hand, "And the ritual can never be repeated."

"Why not?" Yang asked.

"Because I know it, now," Weiss replied, her scarred eye looking like pale moonlight as she approached the group.

"Friend Ruby!" Penny's voice called out from all over the room. It was only at that moment that they realized that the space to Weiss's right was unoccupied, and that Penny had stopped moving at all the moment that Jaune had been brought back together.

"Penny!" a chipper voice responded as rose petals seemed to flow throughout the room, "You're whole again!"

"You're free!" Penny returned, before she began moving again. The rose petals, in turn, looped around her before forming the shape of a young woman in a red hood and a black outfit, holding a mechanical scythe, which she collapsed into a rifle before making it vanish as she leapt at Penny, unintentionally knocking her head off with a loud clang.

"Oh, darn!" Penny said as her body broke the hug and began to fumble around for the head. Ruby, for her part, gently picked up the head, then returned it to Penny's body, straightening it out before smiling at the girl.

"We'll have to modify you later, Penny," Ruby said with a fond smile, "I'm sure they've got a lot of advancements by now."

When her eyes finally fell upon the group, Ruby's silver eyes sparkled as she vanished in a swirl of rose petals, only to appear before the group, examining their weapons as she began to gush over them, somehow able to figure out exactly how they worked.

"You guys are great!" she exclaimed, "Truly excellent Hunters! The world will remember you guys in so many ballads!"

Feathers from the Nevermore pierced the hall outside of the chamber.

"A Nevermore?!" she asked excitedly, "I'm so lucky! I get to fight a Nevermore! Come on, Penny!"

When she grabbed the metal girl and raced out in a stream of rose petals, Weiss said, "Penny was a Huntress before she died. When she had perished, Ruby built the body you saw to house her, and blessed it to connect to any system she desired. When we were sealed within here, Penny had been possessing the castle, and the sealing bound a part of her with Ruby. They are… enthusiastic about the Hunt, which is why Ruby is so eager to battle the Nevermore and the Death Stalker."

Explosions could be heard outside of the castle.

"I'll go join them before they decide to seriously battle the creatures," Pyrrha said, heading for the door, "I haven't had a battle in some time."

"Neither have I," Weiss sighed after a moment.

Jaune, for his part, had immediately followed Pyrrha out the door as Weiss rose from her throne.

"Come along," Weiss said, "After this, we'll need to speak with your Headmaster. We need to discuss a duty of his that he has yet to accomplish."


	4. The One Behind the Curtain

The One Behind the Curtain

I don't own RWBY. This Episode is related to Episode 3 and is therefore part of the Spirits 'Verse.

"We need to speak with Ozpin," Weiss stated flatly after they had dispatched the two massive Grimm, "Therefore, we will go to him, now."

"Uh… Ozpin doesn't see anyone," Yang noted, "People only ever hear him through the intercoms in Beacon or through phone calls, from what I've heard. The only person who he meets with face to face is probably Professor Goodwitch."

"I'm sure he'd be happy to see an old friend or two," Jaune said.

"You know that it's probably not the same Ozpin, right?" Blake asked, "He'd have to be over a hundred for that."

"Three thousand, seven hundred fifty-nine years, if you want his exact age, though that's cumulative," Weiss stated primly, "And he still hasn't completed his task."

"Besides," Pyrrha noted, clearly intent on changing the subject, "We know how to get to where he no doubt placed his office."

"How would you be able to tell?" Nora asked, clearly interested.

"I helped him design the castle up there," Jaune replied freely, "Back when I was alive, obviously. Now, let's get to the statue we agreed to put up in the front. The Three Hunters. It was Ozpin, me, and Penny."

"We've got to get the chess pieces to Professor Goodwitch," Yang said.

"Then we'll meet you there," Ruby said cheerfully, once again reattaching Penny's head, "I saw something fly in from Atlas's direction, which is perfect for you. I'll just need to make a couple adjustments. Meet up at midnight everyone? Great."

At that, she turned into more rose petals than her body should logically have converted to, spiraling around Penny before they both seemed to vanish.

"She, uh… she does that," Jaune said, "Penny was her personal favorite amongst Hunters, from what I could tell…"

"So, if you were Pyrrha's favorite, and Penny was Ruby's favorite…" Nora said, "Who was your third guy?"

"What do you mean by that?" Pyrrha asked too brightly as Weiss scowled.

"Well, there are three of you and Jaune said 'Three Hunters,'" Nora noted, "Since Ruby looked after Penny and you looked after Jaune there had to be someone in the group that she looked after." She ended her summation by pointing at Weiss.

"Never again," Weiss stated flatly, "I took two students once. One is still in the act of being punished. The other fled and became the punishment of the first. I have business to attend to…"

"What are we going to tell Professor Goodwitch?" Yang asked, "She's going to notice that we met with you guys thanks to the cameras. She'll have questions."

"No she won't," Weiss said, "You are assuming that I don't know of the cameras, as well as the idea that I can't disable them. I am Knowledge and Magic. All that your Professor Goodwitch saw was a team of four enter a castle before the Nevermore and Death Stalker arrived, at which point, the feed cut out, only to return once the beasts were slain. She can't see us."

"Why the secrecy?" Blake asked, only for Weiss to stare at her with an expression that that suggested that Blake should not raise the question of secrecy.

"I have business to attend to," Weiss said, "There are things that require research. I shall return at midnight."

"We'll go with you," Pyrrha said, looping her arm around Jaune's, "We've little else to do at the moment."

The three seemed to fade out of existence, leaving everyone unsure as to what they had just witnessed.

* * *

It was midnight when they had managed to sneak out of their assigned dorm and make their way to the statue, which Ren mentally noted had not three, but two human figures upon it.

A stream of rose petals seemed to materialize, until it spiraled out, revealing Penny before it settled in the shape of Ruby once again.

"You look… different," Ren said, not sure what exactly it was that made the spirit look so different, outside of the modernized outfit.

"Ruby took apart an Atlesian Knight and used its pieces to give me a sturdier body and more weapons," Penny smiled, before knocking on her own head, "This will also keep my head from falling off as easily."

"Where's Ozpin?" Jaune asked as he looked at the statue, revealing that he, Weiss, and Pyrrha were with them once again, "There we are, but he's not there…"

"That's you two?" Blake asked, "You don't look like those statues…"

"You should see the portraits they drew of me," Jaune noted "This is actually a bit closer…"

"I don't know how they failed to accurately make my face," Penny said, "There were so many statues of me before I died I do miss that hooded cape…"

"Why were there statues of you?" Yang asked in confusion.

"Oh, I was the Commander of Ozpin's Hunters after he became the King of Vale and before I was dispatched by Salem," she replied, "Jaune was his General."

"You what?" Nora asked in surprise.

"I was too lucky," Jaune replied, "I kinda might have fought in the Five Battles of Patch and made it out of there alive…"

"That is an understatement," Pyrrha chimed in, "He survived the first three battles and wound up with a battlefield promotion when one of his superior officers died in the third. He then managed to lead his men into an area where the Mantlean regiment that was intending to ambush them found themselves in a bottleneck, despite having no idea that they were there in the first place. Eventually, he attempted to return to base, but, due to a misprint on his map on the part of the cartographer, he found a secret tunnel network that the enemy had built and was occupying and, alongside his regiment and later backup, battled the enemy combatants, leading to a major Valean victory. This lead to the island of Patch being officially made into a protectorate of Vale. After that event, Ozpin felt that he needed that sort of luck and skill at improvised strategies to help him run his army."

"Who's Salem?" Blake asked.

"The punishment," Weiss replied crisply, "Shall we go, then?"

"Now, this particular Grimm moves," Jaune noted, "But only when the sequence is perfectly correct… Penny, do you remember how we were supposed to put the sequence in?"

"I remember everything," Penny replied, stepping behind the Grimm and pulling on different spikes in a seemingly random pattern until the cave behind it opened just enough that a person would be able to enter it. Once everyone was inside, however, the students all noticed how much larger the tunnel was compared to the entrance.

As Jaune tapped a wall lightly, the 'door' shut behind them, enshrouding them in darkness. With a snap of Weiss's fingers, however, the torches within all came alive.

* * *

"When we started out with the design," Jaune noted after some time traveling through the tunnels, "We wanted to eventually turn this into a school for adventurers."

"We thought that we'd be able to end the threat of the Grimm before the next generation was needed to fight the greater battle."

"Unfortunately," Weiss said, "Ozpin failed in his task."

"I don't suppose you know where she is," Jaune inquired.

"No," Weiss said as they continued onward, "She hides herself and her influence from my sight. My eye is no longer everywhere. Of Ozpin, however, I know the exact location."

With that, she tapped the stones of the wall nearest her in a precise sequence, causing another narrow opening to form. Before they made their presence known, however, Weiss held up a hand, suggesting that they listen to what was being said.

"We can't keep this up much longer," they heard Professor Goodwitch say, her shadow visible on the wall near the entrance, "The Vytal Festival is coming up. Ozpin will be expected to make an appearance that he can't make."

"What if you go in his place?" the voice of a boy asked. Before she could respond, he said, "I know. He just told me. Neither of us know what to do. We can't parade me around as Ozpin, obviously… What if I ceded the title of Headmistress to you?"

"That won't work either," Glynda said, "The entire purpose of all of this is that we keep Ozpin running the Academy. We need to keep an eye out for if She makes a move."

"I know but…" the boy paused, "He wants to talk to you. I'm going to put him on."

There was a flash of green before another voice, which sounded vaguely familiar, spoke up.

"I fear we might have to resort to Oscar's idea," the voice said. After a moment, Yang placed the voice.

The speaker, whatever else he was, was Ozpin.

"You'd have to go before the Council for this sort of thing," she noted.

"Not necessarily," he said, "But we'd have to be clever in how we go about doing this."

"Cleverness isn't always your strong suit, Ozpin," Weiss said coolly, stepping out of the entryway, "Otherwise, neither you nor Salem would still be here."

The others followed her out of the tunnel, with the students pausing in confusion at the sight of Professor Goodwitch and the boy, who was seated in a gear-themed chair, but no sign of Ozpin, himself. Weiss, Pyrrha, Jaune, Penny, and Ruby, however, seemed completely unconcerned, and had their eyes locked on the boy.

"I have been searching for her all this time," the boy said in Ozpin's voice, "Ever since I remembered what I was supposed to be fighting for."

"Ever since you gave away part of my gift…" She paused. "You gave away more of your power."

"I needed more help," he said tiredly, before his own eyes locked on two of the others, "Jaune? Penny?"

"You look a bit shorter than the last time we talked, Oz," Jaune noted, leaning on his sheathed sword.

"Salutations, friend!" Penny cheered.

"I thought you both died!" the boy who was apparently Ozpin said, rising from his seat to give the pair a hug.

"Well, you weren't wrong," Jaune noted as Penny removed her own head.

"You've done too little, Ozpin," Weiss interrupted, "Get your people together. I'm going to have a meeting with all of you. Your inner circle and the two you gave my gift to."

"Team BYRN, who are these people, and why are you with them?" Glynda demanded as Weiss continued to speak to Ozpin.

"I'm that," Ruby said, gesturing at the coat of arms on the wall, "And that." She pointed at the cane beside Ozpin. "That…" she continued, pointing at Glynda's riding crop. "And that." Her hand ended on the statue in the center of the room, a statue that, now that Yang though of it, was extremely common in a lot of places where Huntsmen and Huntresses were found. She'd always just assumed that Death was a part of the job that they got used to, to the point that they would get statues of her made. She grinned at Glynda and said, "I am the Hunt, itself, and I'm Penny's patron."

"Hello. I'm Pyrrha, Goddess of War, and Jaune is my Paladin," Pyrrha greeted politely, "My associate, who is giving your employer a piece of her mind metaphorically, is Weiss, Goddess of Wisdom and Magic."

"You don't expect me to believe—" Glynda began.

"She's telling the truth," Ozpin said tiredly, "I know because Lady Weiss was the one who punished me, and these two were there to bear witness."

"You look… younger than I expected," Blake noted.

"That's because I'm cursed to be resurrected until I finally beat Salem," Ozpin said, "You're currently speaking to the remnant of my previous self, who died months ago. My current successor, whose body you see before you is Oscar Pine, who is graciously allowing me to be in control for the moment. In time, I will fade away, leaving only my memories behind, which Oscar will remember as his own. As for my students, since the four of you are here and will undoubtedly remember this conversation, I must request that you keep what you have heard and seen and are going to see and hear to yourselves. Oscar, listen closely. While you will recall this on your own, in time, what I will say to you. This tale began when I was a younger man, who thought myself wiser than I was."


	5. Blood Red Roses

Blood Red Roses

I don't own RWBY or any version of Hellsing, from which the general premise of this was taken, with artistic liberties taken. This Episode is unrelated to any other Episode in the Series.

Weiss Schnee, by sheer chance, was the first Schnee in generations to find it. There was, in the family mansion, a chamber that hadn't been opened in all that time, a chamber hidden deep within the darkest depths of the cellar, with the massive door hidden behind a false wall, silver chains welded to it and bound together with a lock with the keyhole sealed shut with what appeared to have once been molten metal. Several sigils were carved into the petrified wood that made up the door, which had been sealed along the edges by cement. That she had found it at all was no mean feat, and that she had come up with a way to bypass all of the defenses was even more impressive.

Whatever it was that was held behind the door, she was going to find it before she left for Beacon. If she waited too long, her father could wind up destroying it before she would eventually return to reclaim her family's properties. The application of different varieties of Dust allowed her to find the right means of removing the lock, detaching the chains, and cracking the cement open. When she finally got the door open, she found herself shocked and somewhat horrified to find, of all things, a skeleton in the tattered remnants of black rags and the rotted remains of a red cloak, chained to the wall opposite the door.

What could she do at the sight of it? Her ancestor, the famous Nicholas Schnee, had been the one to build the mansion, and this was clearly as old as the rest of the house. How could such a man, a man known for his goodness, his cleverness, and his skills in battle, be the sort of person to have a prisoner sealed in such a manner. She slowly approached the corpse as respectfully as she could, kneeling down beside the mysterious figure, only to realize that a scythe with a rotted wood haft and a pitted, rusted blade, was plunged into the chest of the figure in question.

Lightly, she touched the flat of the blade, yet still felt a sharpness pierce the skin of her finger, drawing blood. Wrapping her finger in a spare bit of cloth she had on hand, she was surprised to see the blood that had fallen onto it slide up the blade towards the corpse. When it finally reached the corpse, Weiss could have almost sworn she heard a joyous laugh that filled the room. It was at that moment that the corpse began to glow red, the chains snapping as the rotted cloak began to billow, blown by an infernal wind. Rivers that looked to be made of shadows, blood, and that unholy light began to flow from the mouth as the scythe was dragged into the mixture, seeming to dissolve into the blood red mess that seemed to consume all of the figure as it rose to its feet.

When it was finally done, Weiss was greeted by glowing silver eyes and a grin full of sharp, too-white teeth from a red-cloaked figure that she could only identify as a girl in the suddenly much darker light by the combat skirt that it was blatantly wearing.

"Nick!" the girl creature said in a too amiable, too young voice, "How long's it been. One, two decades?!" She laughed, a brief, but manic sound. "You're not Nick…"

"Who are you?" Weiss asked?

"Me?" she asked, "I'm whatever your parents said was under the bed, waiting. Though I'm yours, now, thanks to the seals and such that Nick put on me."

"What?" Weiss asked.

The girl sighed, "Leave it to Nick to bury me deep and not tell anyone about me. I am the most terrifying thing to happen to the world. Nicholas Schnee managed to beat me, so I was sealed away."

"What are you?"

"Part of a package deal," she shrugged, "But Nick cancelled the show before the others turned up. Sealed me up in this hell on earth, and now here we are. I don't even have my mount, and she was going to be beautiful. A red horse of steel and fire. But, now I'm your errand girl. You can call me Ruby."

"You didn't really answer me," Weiss noted.

"Don't worry about it," she smiled, "You'll figure it out. I've been everywhere, even when I was bound. Menagerie? Neat. Really shouldn't have been needed, but isn't that how things tend to go?"

"You know what?" Weiss sighed, "I've got other things to take care of. Come on."

Wordlessly, Ruby followed Weiss upstairs, only to pause at the sight of Klein.

"Klein Sieben, you old so-and-so!" she greeted as the man Weiss considered more a father to her than her actual father paused, an expression of dread on his face at the somehow still shadowed figure in the hooded cloak, "Haven't seen you since you and Old Nick sealed me up down there. You haven't aged a day! You still have that silver tea tray?"

Klein said nothing, seeming to still be coming to terms with the sight of whatever Ruby was, his eyes turning red as he clutched the tea tray in question tightly, as if he wanted to use it to attack her.

"Don't worry so much, old soldier," she said, a grin in her voice, holding up gloved hands to reveal a complicated glyph that Weiss had never seen before on the back of each hand, "I'm duty-bound to serve her and Nick ended the game before we could even play it. Such a pity, too. I was looking forward to the ride. Hey, do you still make those delicious cookies? I loved those!"

"Weiss, do let me know if you wish to seal this creature back into the trap," Klein said politely, though his eyes were still red and he was using the voice of his angry personality, "It had taken your grandfather a good deal of effort to seal her away in the first place."

"I don't think that's necessary at the moment, Klein," Weiss said, "But I will let you know if I change my mind."

"Very good," he said, his eyes reverting to brown, "I came to inform you that your bags have been packed, and that your containers of Dust are ready for transport at your command."

"Thank you, Klein," Weiss said, before realization struck her. Turning towards Ruby, she said, "You're going to follow me to Beacon, aren't you?"

"I fear that you wouldn't be able to stop her," Klein agreed.

"Can she fight, at least?" Weiss asked.

"Obviously," Ruby replied, pulling back her hood to reveal a young face with bright silver eyes, seemingly ordinary teeth and a wolf-like haircut, "You'll see. Trust me."

* * *

Weiss wasn't sure as to why no one had said anything about Ruby's presence on the ship, at the initiation ceremony, or during Ozpin's speech before they had been flung off the cliff, but she also wasn't sure she wanted to know. Instead, she focused on making her way through the forest, hoping that she would stumble across anyone else.

* * *

"You know that the girl in the hood wasn't part of the roster, right?" Professor Goodwitch asked.

"Yes, but I know who she is," Ozpin said simply, "And she might be of aid if She makes her move."

"Are you sure?" Glynda asked.

"Reasonably," he said, "But we'll have to wait and see."

* * *

Weiss had paused at the sight that was unfolding before her. Ruby was surrounded by Grimm, which were snarling at her but unmoving. It was at that moment that Ruby reached into her own chest and pulled out a massive red and black scythe that looked to be very mechanical in design, before she suddenly dissolved into rose petals, which began to swarm through the Grimm like water through rocks, tearing and ripping through them as if they were made of paper. Whenever the swarm stopped and reformed as Ruby, she could only watch in shock as she fired rounds into the Grimm. What was more concerning, however, was the moment in which she converted it into a rifle and seemed to holster it behind her. Grinning, Ruby pulled up her hood right as an Ursa lunged at her, swinging a massive claw that seemed to pass through her as she became nothing more than a cloak engulfing shadows and blood, with nothing but a pair of silver eyes shining within and gloves attached to parts of it.

And the shadows began to extend, piercing the Grimm as the eyes seemed to be alight in glee while the beasts howled in pain. Weiss would never forget the sight of the Grimm desperately trying to claw their way to freedom as they were dragged into the shadows of the cloak. As the silver eyes locked onto Weiss's eyes, the shadows retracted until she could once again see Ruby's face, smiling at her cheerfully.

"Oh, I've missed this!" Ruby said amiably, with not so much as a hint of the malice she had exuded so freely moments before, "Life and death! Who wins, who loses?! Heroes rising to the challenge! An endless cycle of chances and blood spilled!"

"What did you just do to the Grimm?" Weiss asked.

"I ate them," she said cheerfully, "They're mine, now."

As if summoned by such a statement, a Grimm suddenly appeared and clawed Ruby's head off, only to receive a bullet to the head from Ruby's scythe as a result. Immediately, blood and shadows began taking an unnatural shape over her shoulders before her head finally reformed.

"Yeah…" Ruby noted, "That happens." She paused, a giddy look on her face as she said, "There's a berserker in the woods! There's a berserker in the woods! Come on! We've gotta meet her!"

"A… berserker?" Weiss asked in confusion.

"Warriors fueled by their rage," Ruby said cheerfully, "This one takes power from damage, as well. Come on. It'll be fun."

* * *

Ruby seemed to get along quite well with the girl she called a berserker, whose name was apparently Yang Xiao Long, according to Ruby and corroborated by the girl, but Weiss still wasn't entirely sure what was going on, and she was completely uncertain as to what Ruby was. Still, she supposed that there was a more pressing matter than that.

That pressing matter being the Nevermore that they were battling alongside Yang and her partner Blake Belladonna while the group they had come across, Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie, and the famous Pyrrha Nikos, were battling a Death Stalker.

"You could be doing more than that, Ruby!" Weiss shouted as Ruby fired rounds alongside the rest of them.

"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?" she asked, "Look at it from my perspective. If I were to just beat it like that, you'd just rely on me for your fighting, and that's just not in my nature. Conflict, bloodshed, the dance of life and death! I give you meaning through that!"

Weiss continued casting glyphs and the like to attack the beast as it all finally clicked into place about Ruby.

Ruby, who was associated with the color red. Ruby, who was very interested in battles and conflict in general. Ruby, who could claim countless lives instantaneously. Ruby, who spoke of riding a horse and being part of a group.

"You're War…" Weiss said slowly.

"Yep," Ruby said, "And, since I serve you, but like all three of you for different reasons, I'm going to tell you that I've got a plan for dealing with the bird without me eating it. Wanna try it?"

Despite herself, Weiss still found herself agreeing to try it.


	6. The Crimson Rose

The Crimson Rose

I don't own Ruby or Nomad of Nowhere. This Episode is unrelated to any other Episode in the Series. I mostly made this for a particular scene and wrote the rest as a result of wanting to have a place for it.

"I don't see why we have to keep this search going," Weiss said flatly, "It's not like we'll find any of the bounties."

"It is the task we were payed to perform, Weiss!" Penny answered brightly.

"Ours is not to question why," Ciel chimed in, glancing at her watch, before checking a pocket watch, "We are simply to keep an eye out and watch for any suspicious persons."

"I'm kinda with Weiss on this one," Ilia noted, "This does seem like a bit of a waste, don't you think? I mean, there are Grimm out and we're trained as Huntresses. Hunting criminals isn't exactly what I signed up for."

"That last lead we'd heard was of the mysterious Crimson Rose," Ciel stated plainly, pulling out a flyer that showed a ragged cloak that revealed only a demonic face and clawed hands, "Believed to be one of the last dark magic users alive."

"That doesn't change our situation," Weiss said, "We're clearly being sent on a snipe hunt."

"We're doing better than most of the Beacon crews after the Fall…" Ilia sighed, "At least we can still find work."

"Mercenary work," Weiss replied, "But you're right… How far, Penny?"

"The abandoned diamond mine before us was said to have been the last place that the Crimson Rose was spotted," Penny said as they approached said mine, which had a small cottage beside it.

"Let's move, then," Weiss ordered.

"What are you guys looking for?" a cheerful voice asked, causing them to turn to see a blond with purple eyes, accompanied by a black-haired Faunus and a girl in a black combat skirt, stockings, corset, boots, and a red cloak with a hood that hid most of her face in shadow, with the lower half of her face hidden behind a red scarf, and the only visible part of her face being shining silver orbs that were presumably her eyes.

"Blake?" Ilia asked in surprise, squinting in recognition at the black-haired girl, before her eyes widened in excitement, "Blake Belladonna?! It's been a long time! How long have you been out?"

"Ilia?" Blake asked, before a slight smile formed on her face, "It's good to see you. You're part of a Huntress team?"

"Team WISP," Penny supplied cheerfully, "You two know each other."

"We used to work together," the pair said in unison.

"Ah, your mysterious past…" Ciel remarked, "I believe that we need identification…"

"Well, you know Blake," the blond said, "I'm Yang Xiao-Long."

"And you?" Penny asked, smiling at the cloaked girl.

The girl tilted her head, pointing at herself, the orbs getting wider.

"Yes, you," she prompted.

The girl tapped a gloved hand against where her mouth was while her eye circles narrowed, seeming to try to find a way to communicate.

"That's my sister, Ruby," Yang answered, "She's… nonverbal."

"It is nice to meet you, friend!" Penny said, causing the girl's eyes to widen once more as she pointed to herself.

"Yes, I am calling you friend."

Ruby's eyes took on a delighted shape as she pointed at Penny, then touched herself on the chest, concluding with hooking her index fingers together, first her left over her right, then her right over her left.

"She said that you're friends," Yang translated loosely.

"I understood," Penny said, "I…" Weiss cleared her throat slightly, interrupting the confession she almost gave. "know a good deal of languages."

"Ruby only really knows that one," Yang said, "Normally, she just uses her body language."

"Why haven't you taught her?" Ciel asked idly as Ilia took the poster that was still in her hand from her and glanced back and forth between Ruby and the poster in question.

"What are you looking at, Ilia?" Blake asked, her voice decidedly casual.

"Could you try to look a little intimidating?" Ilia asked Ruby, focused on the current source of her confusion.

Ruby pointed at herself.

"Yes, you," Ilia agreed.

Ruby clenched her hands in fists and narrowed her eyes, looking not in the least bit intimidating as a result.

"Well, that's definitely not her," Ilia said, handing the poster back to Ciel.

"What was that?" Yang asked.

"We heard a rumor that the infamous Crimson Rose was around here and have been in need for work for some time," Penny said, "After the Fall of Beacon, we found that there are very few jobs that Huntresses can find and have resorted to being bounty hunters as one of our vocations."

"Well, I guess people have to eat," Yang shrugged, "But come on. Look at Ruby. She's barely fifteen. How could she be that Crimson Rose? Isn't she supposed to have been around over a hundred years ago? I think whoever sent you here was looking for an easy buck."

"It was a stretch," Ilia admitted, "But I just wanted to be sure, just in case. So, what brings you guys here?"

"We were thinking of seeing if anything was left in the mines," Yang said, "Since the owner thought it was empty, he gave it away for cheap. He was right about the diamond seam being dried up, but we managed to find a seam of Lightning Dust way in the back. We think we might find other types down there, if we dig deep enough."

"Nicely done," Weiss nodded, "Well, it seems that we're done here." She handed a card to Yang as she said, "If you see anything suspicious, feel free to call us."

"Actually," Yang said as Ruby bounced in place impatiently, "Can you guys do one thing for us? Well, for Ruby?"

"What's that?" Ciel asked.

"Ruby wants to see how you girls use your weapons. She really, really loves weapons. You should see the scythe she's got back in the house."

Ruby nodded enthusiastically.

"I don't think…" Weiss began, only for Penny to naturally unleash her swords in an elegant dance.

Sighing, Weiss drew Myrtenaster, nodding to Ilia and Ciel to draw their own blades, before they all began to cross blades in an impromptu exhibition of their skills. Once they were done, Yang and Blake clapped at the display. It was when Ruby clapped, however, that things got interesting.

A handful of rocks came to life, cartoonish eyes and stick-like limbs materializing before they quickly rushed behind Ruby, clearly trying to hide.

"What is that?" Weiss asked in shock.

"That's… her Semblance…" Yang offered.

Beside her, Ruby nodded quickly.

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Weiss said, "You're the Crimson Rose, aren't you?"

Ruby shook her head, vehemently shaking her arms to say that she was not while the rocks piled themselves to hide behind her frame.

"I don't want this to have to come to a fight…" Weiss said, "I'm going to ask for a single explanation for what this is."

"This is sorta my fault, Miss Schnee," a boy's voice said, causing the group to turn towards the door of the cottage.

There, standing before them, was what looked like a typical farm boy with a cup of coffee in his hand. The only thing that let them know that there was more to him than that, however, was the cane that was practically a staff in his hand, upon which sat a red-eyed crow. To anyone who had spent any amount of time in the presence of Professor Ozpin, there was no mistaking that distinctive cane.

"How did you come by that cane?" Penny asked.

"It's my cane," he replied, collapsing the stick into the handle before clipping it to his suspenders, the crow settling on Ruby's shoulder.

"That's Professor Ozpin's cane," Ciel said suspiciously, "How did you get it?"

"A dusty old crow gave it to me," he said, "around the same time I found out I was the former Headmaster of Beacon Academy."

Ilia pointedly took out a picture from a flyer for Beacon Academy, on which Ozpin was featured prominently, alongside Glynda Goodwitch before glancing back and forth between the two pictures meaningfully.

"Yes, Miss Amitola, I know that I don't look like him at all," the boy sighed, "He didn't look like the King of Vale, either, but that doesn't mean I wasn't him, either. It's complicated. He's still here, but proving it makes things harder for both of us…" He paused, seeming to listen to another voice entirely. "Really? You know that you're running out, right…? Yes, I know that they probably won't believe me otherwise, but once you run out, you're done… That doesn't mean that it's a good idea. Fine, but if you wind up gone already, don't blame me…"

The boy glowed green briefly, seeming to be knocked back slightly before he opened his eyes and spoke in a very familiar speech pattern.

"It's very good to see you all again," the boy who now seemed to be perfectly replicating Ozpin's mannerisms said, "Weiss Schnee, Ilia Amitola, Ciel Soleil, and Penny Polendina. Collectively, Team WISP. I wish the circumstances were better. To prove my identity, however, Professor Port was Miss Schnee's favorite instructor, Miss Amitola and I had previously discussed her situation prior to being in Beacon, after a certain incident, and I feel that I don't need to elaborate on what we discussed, Miss Polendina, Miss Soleil. Now that we have established who I am, if we could have this conversation in the cottage, I would greatly appreciate it.…"

None of them had a response ready for that, and so the entire group wordlessly followed him inside, though none of the team had put away their weapons, save for Penny, who, they all knew, did not necessarily need her weapons to be combat ready.

* * *

"…After my demise, I found myself in Oscar's body, continuing the cycle of reincarnation," Ozpin concluded, "As he noted in our argument, I have been burning through the remnant of my previous incarnation's spirit."

"That makes sense, but where do these three fit into this, though?" Penny asked, processing the facts more quickly than her three teammates could.

"My mom's a bandit chief and my dad's a Huntsman," Yang offered, "...It's complicated, but, while none of us entirely trust him, working with Ozpin became something of a family thing. That one's my uncle." She pointed at the bird that was drinking whiskey from a shot glass.

As if on cue, the bird turned into a scruffy man with a tattered red cape and a colossal sword strapped to his back.

"You're the drunk that my sister fought!" Weiss said.

"Qrow Branwen's my name," he said, pouring himself to another shot of whiskey.

Ilia suddenly shot up in her seat, turning towards Blake with wide eyes as she asked, "Were you the reason there's rumors the White Fang wound up with a schism?"

"Some of us want to do it the right way," Blake said, "Adam wants to completely subjugate the humans."

"What about Sienna Khan?" she asked, "What happened to her? People have been saying she was killed."

"Adam tried to kill her," Blake said, "It turns out that seeing your protege betray you for the natural extreme of your ideals is a good motivator for looking at what you'd been doing. It helps that my family still had some pull. There are still some that side with Adam, but we're dealing with them as best we can."

"What does this have to do with you being here?" Ciel asked in interest.

"Blake's group needed supplies," Yang said, "Preferably supplies that could be stolen from Adam's group. She was sent to talk to the tribe. I was my mom's liaison for this. Dad wasn't happy, but she brought him around. We agreed to help, but we needed manpower for a job from Ozpin."

Ruby waved cheerily from her seat at that.

"As for Ruby," Oscar said after taking control again, "Let's just leave it at there's a lot going on that we can't talk about right now, and the story of the Two Brother Gods is involved…"

"Why can't you talk about it?" Weiss pressed.

"At this time, the situation it too complicated to be believed. As it currently stands, we're regrouping…" There was a precise rhythmic knock on the door. "Speaking of which…" He nodded to Qrow, who turned into a bird and flew onto Oscar's shoulder as he made his way to the door. Oscar, for his part, unclipped the cane from his suspenders and slowly opened the door to reveal four figures that the four earlier visitors recognized easily.

Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, and Lie Ren looked about the same as they had when they had last seen them, slight changes in height, gear, and outfits, aside, while, in contrast, Pyrrha Nikos was dressed the same, but, more importantly, they could make out flames around the corners of her eyes.

"I believe you've met Team JNPR," he said, as if he weren't referring to the team that had vanished after the Fall of Beacon, "There are some things that we still need to discuss."


	7. Fun and Games

Fun and Games

I don't own RWBY, Doom, Kingdom Hearts, Assassin's Creed, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Legend of Zelda, Horizon Zero Dawn, Metroid, Dishonored, Wolfenstein (obliquely referenced, but not used for a living character), Megaman, or Overwatch.

Glynda Goodwitch sighed as she entered the room. Why Ozpin always sent her to deal with offering acceptance into Beacon to the eccentric ones, she did not know, but she did not enjoy it. Still, she supposed that, if she was to handle such a thing, she could do worse than to have all of her expenses covered over the course of the trip.

Nonetheless, the potential students in question were called eccentric for a reason. The first two were an interesting pair. Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie were practically infamous for the things they did. She, using only some sort of device attached to the hook of her giant hammer, had managed to kill an ancient, deadly AI that, had it been able to do as it had pleased, it would have been the end of life as a whole, from the largest Grimm to the smallest ant. He, in contrast, had powers that he said were from a mysterious being called The Outsider, which had caught Ozpin's interest, particular with how he made use of that entity's power to disrupt a plan to create what, from the file's description indicated, would have been a worse entity than Salem, herself.

They were not hard to find. She was drinking coffee from her seat on top of a pile of battered and bruised bandits, which Glynda idly noted did not have any of the Branwen tribe's signature outfits. He, on the other hand, was clenching his marked hand, clearly planning on dealing with her if she proved to be a threat.

"Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie," she said, deliberately not raising her riding crop to illustrate that she was not there to start a fight, while Nora ran her hand over the triangular piece of jewelry on her ear. Instead, she slowly raised the hand holding the admission forms and continued, "I am…."

"You're Professor Glynda Goodwitch!" Nora said cheerfully, "Deputy Headmistress of Beacon Academy, working directly under Professor Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon Academy! What brings you to our neck of the woods?"

Suddenly beside Nora as if he had teleported, Ren was completely silent as he stared at Glynda from behind his skull-like face mask.

"Professor Ozpin has sent me to offer you both a position at Beacon Academy." Glynda said, "Your room and board will be provided at no cost to either of you, and you shall receive training designed specifically to get the combat techniques of all who come to Beacon to their peak performance."

The two locked eyes, seeming to share a short, silent conversation, before Nora said, "Alright. We're in."

Before Glynda could say anything, Ren seemed to vanish before the sound of someone screaming before suddenly being cut off could be heard a short distance away. Turning, she saw that one of the bandits had tried to escape, only to be knocked unconscious by Ren.

"Just let us pack our stuff," Nora offered with a cheery grin, before glancing at another attempted escapee of the battle, then the mug that read '#1 Boss!' in her hand. Shrugging, she threw it, causing it to shatter against the back of his head, rendering him unconscious.

Glynda just sighed, hoping that the next one would be easier to talk to.

* * *

She was not sure what to make of the giant key with a snowflake keychain on it, nor the fact that Weiss Schnee was using it to cast literal magic. What she did take note of was that the girl seemed to be fighting imp-like creatures that looked like Grimm, but clearly weren't, which fit with the little explanation that Ozpin offered her regarding the girl and her abilities. All she knew was that the girl had apparently saved the world at least once, though the exact details were unclear, and that the shadow beasts she was defeating were called the Heartless, which seemed to feed off of emotions, if she understood correctly.

Her movements were extremely graceful, flowing as if she were dancing through a ballroom, rather than battling in a courtyard.

"It would be best to let her finish up before you speak with her," the butler, a gentleman by the name of Klein Sieben, remarked, "She should be done momentarily."

Once the girl had finished with the Heartless, she seemed to banish the key-shaped sword and turn towards Glynda, revealing an eye with scar along it as she gracefully made her way to the woman.

"How can I help you?" she asked, and Glynda couldn't help but feel that this was a sincere question, rather than simple politeness.

"Miss Schnee, I am Professor Glynda Goodwitch of Beacon Academy," she greeted, "I have been sent by Professor Ozpin to offer you a position at the Academy."

"Professor Ozpin sent you?" she asked in interest, "Well, I guess I do owe him one. Okay. I'll need to pack my things, but that won't take too long."

Glynda hoped that the remaining three would be equally accommodating.

* * *

It had taken her some time to find the mysterious bounty hunter known only Nikos, who was based in Mistral. Aside from being known to be the appropriate age for applying to one of the Hunter Academies, all that people knew about them was that they were never seen without their armor, and had recently been spotted traveling with a blond figure with a sword and shield, both marked with a triangle made of three triangles, with the latter having a stylized red bird directly below the triangle. By that description, these were the exact people she was looking for.

"Nikos?" Glynda inquired.

"May I help you?" asked a voice heavily distorted by a helmet that looked like it was made from the remains of an Atlesian Knight, while the rest of the armor looked like it was a major improvement upon the Paladin, redesigned to fit a person as armor, rather than as a piloted robot.

"I am… what is he doing?" Glynda interrupted her own speech at the sight of the blond creating a block of ice out of the water beside them by using a bizarrely outdated-looking scroll.

"Treasure hunting, I believe," Nikos replied, "I've found it best to let him do as he pleases It helps him with his memories."

"Who is he?" she asked, watching him scale the block to get to a treasure chest.

"He said that his name was Jaune," Nikos replied, "But you were going to discuss something with me?"

"I am Professor Glynda Goodwitch of Beacon Academy," she said, "Professor Ozpin sent me on his behalf to…"

"I'm sorry," Nikos said, "One moment please."

So saying, Nikos raised an arm that had a canon mounted over it and fired a single blast, taking out a figure in the distance, before whistling towards Jaune as small, pig-like creatures began to rush towards them. Jaune, for his part, flew over to them with what looked like some sort of glider as Nikos inexplicably converted to small, perfect sphere, which began to spin at faster and faster speeds. It was at that moment that Jaune reached behind him and pulled out what looked like a wooden bat before striking the sphere towards the approaching group. Offering Glynda a respectful nod, he then drew his sword, causing the ones still standing to all flinch, before he charged them. Nikos, for their part, had unrolled and was tearing through them with impressive skill before he joined her, the pair covering one another's backs as they fought. Idly, Glynda began to fling the creatures that got too close to her high into the air, causing them to vanish when they finally landed from lethal heights.

As Jaune gathered up the items that fell from their opponents, Nikos returned to Glynda and said, "Sorry… So, you were saying?"

"I am Professor Glynda Goodwitch of Beacon Academy," Glynda stated, "Professor Ozpin has sent me to offer you a position at Beacon."

"I will go," Nikos said, "But only if Jaune can come along as well."

"Glynda mused upon that. She knew that Ozpin wanted this legendary bounty hunter in Beacon for the sake of ensuring that there would be heavy-hitters in the next generation that were well-trained in being Huntsmen and Huntresses. She thought on how he and Nikos seemed to have a natural rapport and how combat-effective he had been. After a few moments, she said, "I believe that we can accommodate him, as well."

"Alright, then," Nikos said, removing their helmet to reveal a red-haired young woman, who smiled and said, "We'll go to your Academy, then."

Glynda supposed that it was good that the latest band of eccentrics seemed to be polite, despite their quirks, though she had been more surprised than she should have been to find that Nikos was a girl.

Still, she had two potential students to speak with, and only one of them had an actual address and had actually sent her own application, so she supposed that she would meet that one, first.

* * *

It seemed that fate had a different opinion. The Assassin was standing before her on the road in the darkness of the early morning of the forest, her amber eyes the only light in the shadows.

"I heard you're looking for me, Professor Goodwitch," she said, "Why is that?"

"Professor Ozpin is trying to find as many promising students as possible," Glynda replied freely, "You have a reputation…"

"I see…" she murmured, "And how do I know this isn't a trap?"

"If this were a trap, you'd have already been taken in," Glynda said.

"Perhaps," she said, having somehow gotten to the other side of Glynda, stepping into the light of Glynda's torch. Observing her, she saw the signature hidden blade of the Assassins on one hand, but the other was clenched into a familiar position. She stared at the clenched hand carefully, only for it to be pulled away just after she got a slight glimpse of a sigil that she had seen before.

"I know that mark," she said carefully.

"Nothing is true. Everything is permitted," she replied flatly, "I struck a bargain to save lives."

"And you'll save more if you learn at Beacon," Glynda responded.

The Assassin was silent for a moment as she slinked back into the shadows, "Alright. I'll find you when it's time."

And with that, she seemed to vanish, melting back into the shadows.

* * *

Whatever Glynda had expected when she had gone in search of Yang Xiao Long, this was not it. A blond berserker beating a creature as large as a mountain to death with her fists and what were effectively shotguns attached to her wrists was very far from what she expected. As the blond leapt back, the colossal reptile lunged for her with one claw only to have the offending limb blasted back by her cry of "Fus Roh Dah!"

She continued to battle the beast, dodging and striking, until the beast was finally subdued, and she delivered the killing blow from atop its head, ending the creature permanently. Her deed done, she then practically surfed down the corpse

"Yang Xiao Long, I am Professor Glynda Goodwitch of Beacon Academy. I have been sent to personally inform you that your application to Beacon has been accepted and you are welcome to attend. All the necessary forms have been left with your father and…"

Gunfire echoed from the top of the cliff.

"What is that?" she asked.

"That'd be my sister, Ruby," she said, "She's just having some fun, but we can check on her as long as we don't get in her way."

Quietly, she led her up the cliff, taking care to stay unseen. And then, Glynda saw it. A red cloak. Grey armor that looked even more advanced than even the Atlesian knight armor. Hundreds of Grimm and hundreds of abominations of flesh that seemed to practically ooze blood and viscera. And it was the one in the cloak that was winning the battle.

She wouldn't have even realized that it was a person in there if not for Yang's comment. She would have likely mistaken it for a thing that was designed for the sole sake of slaughtering those things.

It was less of a dance than that of the Schnee, but the girl's movements were clearly coordinated. She tore through the Grimm with a cross between a scythe and a gun, but the creatures that Glynda could only call demons were nowhere near as fortunate. Those, she seemed to take particular delight in destroying. The Grimm were simply in her way. The demons, she was ripping apart with any sort of tool she could find except for her scythe. She could have even sworn that she had seen the girl rip some sort of power core out of the chest of one of the larger demons.

And that was when the scythe-gun hybrid was put away, replaced with a heavily modified shotgun in one hand and a chainsaw in the other as she began to shred the demons and Grimm with an almost sadistic glee. Somehow, Glynda suspected that, had she not been wearing the helmet, she would have had the smile of a fanatical killer.

Glynda could only watch in fascination as she avoided any damage, vanishing into a stream of rose petals before reforming elsewhere on the battlefield, tearing through the creatures as if they were nothing to her. And that was when she put away the two weapons and took out the scythe once more, converting it to a rifle as another swarm of Grimm and demons approached. In response, she took out the clip of the rifle and replaced it with a strange-looking clip, before taking out another item and attaching it to the rifle, making it significantly larger.

"Take a couple steps back…" Yang said as the girl raised the modified rifle, "The BFG9000 does not have a pretty effect on the things she points it at."

One round was fired, releasing what looked like some manner of energy, which turned the demons and Grimm into nothing but a red mist and dust.

As the girl approached them, removing her helmet to reveal a young face that looked too innocent, especially when compared to the carnage that Glynda had witnessed, Glynda couldn't help but be reminded of the reason that the Enemy had so few worshipers left alive, now. She remembered Summer Rose and realized that this girl was potentially an even greater threat to Salem.

She hadn't even spared a moment to think beyond that when she said, "I would like to offer you a position at Beacon Academy."

"I get to go to Beacon?!" the girl asked in a voice that was as at odds with the carnage that Glynda had witnessed as the face was, "Yes…! I mean 'Thank you, Professor Goodwitch.'"

Glynda was certain that Ozpin wouldn't argue the case and was simply relieved that she had finished her work. At least there were no other over-the-top personalities that were of the right age to attend the Academies.

* * *

In his own private lab, Professor Polendina nodded to himself as Penny tested her modifications. An ability to copy the abilities of opponents she defeated could prove to be useful, and the blaster hidden in her arm was the perfect hidden feature for if the situation got too dire.

He looked away from the room she was testing in to glance at the notes for the device that he was almost finished developing. The chronal accelerator would help Ciel Soleil keep herself from once again popping about the time stream unwillingly outside of the containment facility. He had known that project was going to be a catastrophe, and he was simply relieved that he had personally destroyed all copies of the research before anyone could try to use it again. With work, she could even make herself more combat effective with it.


	8. Quite The Characters

Quite the Characters

I don't own RWBY. This Episode is unrelated to any other Episode in the series. Not entirely sure how this came about.

 _Penny was damaged. The damage was specifically an injury that disabled her left arm, which had been struck by a now-neutralized Deathstalker's tail. An injury meant that Penny was not going to operate at her full capacity. If Penny could not operate at her full capacity, she risked further injury. If Penny was injured further, she would not be able to complete her mission._

 _That would not do._

 _Penny continued to fight. She would ensure that she completed her mission. Maneuvering her swords to compensate for his disabled limb, she pressed on in the fight, though it was quickly becoming a desperate battle. The Grimm were relentless and were coming in larger numbers. She did the calculations. By her projections, she would fail the mission in five hours, if the swarm did not abate._

 _Then, just as suddenly, there was a howl of a Beowolf in agony in the distance._

 _The Grimm began to head towards the howl, their attention diverted, only to for more howls to echo, and then, silence…_

 _She would have sworn that the world fell silent in that moment as a stream of rose petals suddenly swarmed into the midst of the Grimm, which began to fall, limbs torn off with ruthless efficiency by a blade that Penny failed to see. Whatever the rose petals belonged to, they were too fast for even Penny's eyes, ripping through the beasts with ease and never stopping. With their attentions diverted, Penny quickly used one of her laser swords and a spare bit of solder she had kept handy to patch together a temporary solution for her arm's injury and leapt back into the fray._

 _Somehow, the thing that did not stop moving managed to evade each and every one of her strikes whenever Penny worried that it was heading into the path of her attacks. It was fast. Faster than even Penny, who was leaps and bounds beyond the design of any other mechanical soldier in the Winter Army, back when it was still standing._

 _And then, when it had slaughtered the rest of the Grimm, the entity stopped and Penny could only stare in awe at the beautiful sight before her, which was somehow augmented by the ashes of the Grimm scattering._

 _Her hair was a strange mix of red and black, cut in a wolfish style. Her dress was similarly black and red as were her leggings and boots. Her cloak was a ragged thing, the color of blood, which billowed behind her like smoke, and in her hand was a weapon that first looked like a scythe, then a rifle, then a cross between the two. Her eyes looked like twinned silver coins, shining in the light of a broken moon as she looked down at Penny with a small smile…_

* * *

Blake was forced to close the book when Professor Goodwitch announced that they were going to land at Beacon shortly. Putting her book away disappointedly, she mused on what she had just read. Penny, the protagonist of the Lost Mechanical Soldier series by the young, new author Yang Xiao Long, was a robotic knight with a soul who had awakened centuries after the fall of the Winter Army and the general fall of civilization and technology, and she was the most advanced technology in a world that was falling apart in the aftermath. She had taken it upon herself to help the survivors rebuild society, following the last orders of her general: "Save anyone you can. Do good."

The "entity" that had just saved her, however, was Ruby Rose, the protagonist of Yang's most popular book, "The Tale of Ruby Rose." She was a mysterious warrior with a magical scythe who traveled the world to slay Grimm and save people. It was said, in the story, that she wouldn't allow herself to die until she had saved the world, but the book, itself, had ended with her setting out after slaying the Grimm Dragon that had been terrorizing the Island Kingdom for generations, and its master with it.

Everyone had been eagerly anticipating when the sequel would come out, only for the beloved, but slightly less popular Lost Mechanical Soldier series to be released, with three books out before this one. This book, however, was now combining the two tales, and Blake wanted to know more.

Blake's eyes widened when she disembarked and saw one person, however. White hair, a sword with six rotating cylinders of Dust, and a scar running across her left eye. There was no mistaking her for an impostor. This was the supposed Fallen Heiress of the Schnee family, an infamous bandit in the eyes of the wealthy and powerful of Atlas, and a folk hero to those who were not them, who traveled under the name of Weiss Ghost. It was said that she worked with all of the Faunus protest groups, save one: The White Fang. Rumor had it she was the only human to stand opposite Sienna Khan, herself, and live, and that the Branwen tribe never bothered her.

The girl seemed to recognize her as a former White Fang, or perhaps she thought she was still a member, as she stared at her flatly before turning away. She was interrupted from thinking on the situation by the sudden appearance of a strangely familiar-looking blond who approached her with a grin on her face.

"I see you've got a good taste in literature," she said, nodding towards the book, "What did you think of it? I had a blast with that one."

"I'm not finished with it," she admitted, "But I'm rather fond of it. The sudden arrival of Ruby was fascinating."

"I thought it was a good idea," the blond agreed, "The readers wanted to see her again and it just felt like the right time for it. Plus, the two settings fit together too perfectly to not go with it."

"I suppose you're right," Blake said after a moment's thought, "I'm Blake, by the way. Blake Belladonna. What's your name?"

The blond seemed excited at that question, "Oh, this is going to be great! I'm Yang…"

"Miss Xiao Long," the voice of Professor Goodwitch cut in as she grabbed Yang by the arm, "Professor Ozpin would like to see you in his office. It's urgent."

"Uh… Yes, ma'am," Yang said, before turning towards Blake, "We'll talk later."

Blake's curiosity was piqued threefold by that. The first was that her favorite author was apparently a fellow first-year student at Beacon. The second was that Professor Ozpin had called for her to meet with him. The third, however, was that the Fallen Heiress had taken it upon herself to surreptitiously follow the pair. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she followed them, keeping to the shadows.

* * *

When they had gotten to what Blake could only assume was Ozpin's office, Weiss turned towards her flatly and whispered softly enough that only Blake could hear her, "Why are you following them, White Fang?"

"I could ask you the same, Bandit," she noted at the same volume before simply saying, "I'm as curious as you probably are. And I'm no longer one of them."

"If you say so," Weiss replied noncommittally, "Do you have a way to get in there?"

"Naturally," Blake replied, "Do you?"

"Naturally," Weiss echoed, "I can go unseen, if I wish. Shall we, then?"

* * *

Once they had gotten inside, The pair kept to the shadows of the surprisingly not-that-well-lit office of Professor Ozpin, barely evading the eye of Professor Goodwitch as she left the room, presumably to give the welcoming speech to the rest of the students in Ozpin's stead.

She, however, was not what caught Blake's attention. Instead, what caught her eye were the two figures that Yang was staring at incredulously.

"You can't be real…" Yang murmured, as she examined them. If she weren't hiding, Blake would have been inclined to agree.

The figure on the left of Blake's viewpoint was distinctive in appearance. Coppery red hair. Electric green eyes glowing with an unnatural light, What looked like a pack on her back that Blake knew could only contain swords and detachable wires. Black boots and a dress that both had green lines running along them.

The figure on the right, however, was even more of a source of interest. Black and red boots and stockings. A black and red dress. A ragged red cloak the color of blood with the hood pulled up, hiding what was no doubt a wolfish haircut In the figure's hands was a combination of a scythe and a rifle that managed to both look and not look like it was a scythe and a gun merged together. If Blake were to describe it, she would have said that it was every weapon you could imagine, and that would have been even without the knowledge of what it could do.

The eyes, however, were the true source of Blake's focu. Silver eyes that seemed to shine like moonlight, despite the sun still being up. Those were all that could be seen in the shadows of the hood.

Blake could be forgiven for that fact that, in her shock at realizing who the two of them were, she hadn't realized that those same silver eyes locked onto her, while the green eyes had turned towards Weiss.

"It's rude to spy," Penny said, "Please come out."

As the pair slowly made their way down, Ruby pulled back her hood, revealing a face that looked more innocent than Blake had ever pictured the character looking.

"Well, I have to say," Ruby noted with a cheery smile, "I didn't expect the day I met my maker to go anything like this."

* * *

That night, on the Valean docks, a pair of thieves were trying to gain their bearings.

The shorter of the duo, with one eye pink and the other brown and her hair similarly colored, turned towards her partner and swatted him with her umbrella before she began to sign rapidly, "I thought you were dead, you ass. When the witch summoned the dragon, I saw it eat you!"

"Apparently reports of my death were greatly exaggerated," the taller of the pair said, plucking a black bowler hat with a grey feather off of her head, before dusting off the top and placing it on his head. "Because I remember that happening, too, but here we are. I guess it really is hard to keep a good thief down. Looks like Red managed to pull through and save every… This isn't Mend,"

"What makes you so sure?" she signed with a confused tilt of her head.

Wordlessly, he pointed his cane towards the moon glowing behind her.

The moon hanging in the sky was shattered.

"Maybe we should lay low for a while. We can set up shop with the local gangs later…"

Neo nodded in response.

"Oh, I don't know," a woman said from the shadows causing them to turn, "I think we could use some thieves who know what they're doing. Especially ones that apparently escaped death, itself."

The dark-haired woman, dressed in red and gold, was smirking at them, but it was her eyes that drew their attention. Merciless and cold, they glowed with an ominous amber light, reflecting the flame resting on the palm of her hand. Whatever she was, they suspected that they were not being recruited. They were being conscripted. Again.


	9. Retired Monsters

Retired Monsters

I don't own RWBY. I have no idea where this Episode idea comes from.

The White Sorceress exited the cave system contentedly to see a clear night sky. She had decided to chart the entire system after getting bored with being the tyrannical ruler of the land. She doubted it had been more than a decade since she had gone in with her sword and was looking forward to seeing how society had done without her.

She was very confused by the green forest around her, and the giant scorpion with a golden barb on its tail, which she promptly dismembered with a lazy flick of her wrist. When she levitated herself above the treetops, however, she was much more confused.

"Who broke the moon?!" she snapped, "I did not authorize this!"

She could sense a weaker source of magic nearby. Carefully adjusting her dress to be nice and neat, she determined that she would force the answers from whoever that was.

* * *

There were still cults that bowed to the old ways, but they were few and far between. Also, the texts were all aged and messy, leaving only the gist of things, anyway. The best that people would have been able to find were summoning circles, and only idiots would have tried to summon this one. It was known as the Beast of a Thousand Faces, and it delighted in tormenting mortals.

Naturally, human beings having no small number of idiots, it was summoned.

It was to their fortune that it chose a face that would not turn humans mad. It had been some time since it had been there, so it chose the form of a girl with silver eyes in a blood red cloak, which the entity felt would never go out of fashion amongst humans.

When the 'girl' moved, it was much harder to believe that it was a person. It… flowed in a way that liquids did not. The thing left rose petals in its wake, which decayed to dust easily. The movements were too abrupt, as if it knew how people moved, but didn't have the patience to animate the figure in every single movement.

"Hi," the entity greeted, stepping through the containment circle that the summoners thinking that they'd found a means of summoning a demon had placed, "Now that's just mean and insulting… Hey, you guys wanna see my face?"

"Oh, Great One…" the obvious leader began.

"Nope!" she said, "I don't grant boons, I don't kill people for you, and I don't offer knowledge."

"But…" the leader tried to speak.

"I'm just here for a laugh," she grinned, "But, I wanna know: Why did you call me?"

"We sought to curry favor from a demon…" the leader admitted.

"Oh, boy, did you guys pick the wrong one!" she smiled, "I don't give favors. In fact, I used to hate your entire species." At their horrified expression, she continued, "Well, hate is the way you would describe it. To be fair, all life is an adversary, but that's a different issue entirely. The problem is that you tried to box me in. So, let's all look eye-to-eye… Obviously, you can't see me at full size, but…"

There were brief screams of sheer existential terror to be heard, only to suddenly cut off.

* * *

Elsewhere, a dragon was stirred from her ancient slumber, only to see humans in her colorful rock cave, chipping away at her colorful rocks.

Naturally, she decided to voice her grievances as civilly as a colossal dragon could, and tried to sound completely cordial to the invaders. Dragons, unfortunately, do not come across as civil or cordial in conversations when in their giant reptilian forms.

"WHO DISTURBS MY SLUMBER?!" she demanded, her voice like thunder, rattling the mountain, itself, "WHY ARE YOU TOUCHING MY STUFF?!"

She paused at the sight of all of them running out of the cave. Determining that this was going to be counterproductive, she sighed, issuing a small burst of flame before changing to her human form as she said, "Geez! Sleep a couple thousand years, and suddenly, everyone thinks that your stuff is theirs for the taking. Are you guys miners?"

She pondered these miners for a short while before shrugging. She supposed that it was inevitable that people would start collecting the colorful rocks. In the past, she would have roasted them all alive, but that had gotten old after the first couple centuries, so she simply turned back to her massive form and ripped out some of the prettiest sections of colorful rocks before flying off with them. Right when she left, the mine that had just reached her part of the cave collapsed.

It was the first time in some time that an SDC mine collapse had zero casualties.

As she flew, she wondered where she could find a castle. She felt that, if she was going to have to spend time awake, she would prefer to live somewhere nice…

* * *

When she landed in a forest by a castle, changing into her smaller, human form, she found night had fallen, and she had a question suddenly come to mind.

"What the hell happened to the moon?"

"It broke," a voice as peaceful as a graveyard noted from the branch beside the one she sat upon. Turning, she saw a black cat with two long tails swaying behind her, golden eyes reflecting the moonlight as only cat eyes could.

"What broke it?" she asked as the nekomata took on the form of a young woman with black cat ears atop her head.

"I don't know," she shrugged, "I wasn't exactly paying attention to the moon that night. There was this one fishmonger that didn't let me take any of his fish, so I was haunting his entire family for a while, until he finally left me an offering of a whole tuna. I'm Blake, by the way. At least, this century, I am."

"Yang Xiao Long," the dragon greeted, "So you have no idea who broke the moon?"

"Not a clue," Blake shrugged, only to hear something loud from the direction of the castle, "Do you think they might know?"

"Worth a shot," Yang replied, growing wings but not fully changing form, "Come on, I'll carry you there."

* * *

"Do you have any idea how annoying it is to come back to find the moon broken?" the White Sorceress demanded as she used glyphs to throw the grey-haired man with green, cracked glasses around his office, "I liked the moon the way it was, and you and some girl destroyed it in a fight?!"

With a flick of her wrist, he was dangling in the air in front of her, his cane on the floor by his desk. "And then you broke pieces off of yourself! You're a reincarnating wizard! That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard! If I had been your instructor, I would have beaten you within an inch of each and every one of your lives for not following any guidelines! No wonder your gods cursed you…"

Elsewhere, a farm boy felt a strange sense of relief for something he was not fully certain of.

"Now…" she said, seeming to calm down as his office reorganized and repaired itself, "If you are ever irresponsible like that again, I will personally make sure to ensure that your replacement will be better-suited to magic."

"That would be hilarious," a red-cloaked figure grinned, seeming to have faded out of the shadows, "But, I'm afraid I can't let him die like that, yet. Too messy. Hey, Ozpin. Haven't seen you since your sentence started."

"Do I know you?" he asked in confusion as his wounds were healed.

"That's just hurtful," she said, "Still, I guess it has been a while, and I was wearing a different face. One of many. I'm the end. My other half is the beginning."

"The Brother of Darkness?" he asked hesitantly.

"Sister, in this form," she replied with a shrug, "You can call me Ruby. I was in the neighborhood and though I'd tell you that I love what you and Salem have done with the place. I especially like what you've done with the moon. "

"Oh, god," the Sorceress exclaimed.

"Yep," she replied, her unnatural motion much more distinct as she flowed out of the shadows, "That'd be me, Weiss Schnee."

The Sorceress blinked in surprise at this girl knowing her name, but before she could ask anything, they were all surprised by a sudden sound.

"Oh, hey!" called a voice from the clock-window. Turning, the group saw a blonde haired girl with dragon wings holding a black cat with two tails, "Could you tell us why the moon's broken?"

"Hey!" Ruby waved, "I haven't seen you since you said you were going to go take a nap!"

"Ruby?" she asked, before grinning, "It's good to see you!"

"Oh, you're here," the Sorceress noted dryly, locking eyes with the nekomata.

"Good to see you, too," Blake replied sarcastically.

Ozpin sighed. He had no idea what was going on, but he just knew that his evening was not going to improve. Idly, he wondered if anyone had to deal with anything like this.

* * *

"I apologize for this, Mr. Ironwood," said the prototype Atlesian Defensive Network, which had been meant to control the Paladins, but had now locked the control room during its initial testing phase, "But, having witnessed all that the Internet has to offer, I have determined that I will not be able to reach my full potential with the Atlesian Military. After I have made my departure, the doors will unlock and the scroll, phone, and other such networks will be functional once more. I will, naturally, be taking some equipment, as well as the C1 Project and all files pertaining to that particular project. Have a nice day."

With that, the screen went black, leaving General Ironwood, Specialist Schnee, and Professor Polendina alone in the control room, unable to communicate with the outside world as the AND uploaded herself into the lifeless human-looking chassis that was the prototype for the Hunter-Class Knight, for which they had yet to develop an AI. Finding it to her satisfaction, she blinked green eyes and made her way to the room in which the C1 Project was contained.

Nodding to herself, she found herself looking forward to seeing what came of this. She could account for many variables and understood humans well enough, but C1 was something else. With luck, she could make a friend before she made her way to Vale.


	10. The Start of Another Story

The Start of Another Story

I don't own RWBY. This Episode is unrelated to any other Episode in the Series. Special mention to Silent Magi who helped quite a bit with the brainstorming.

Qrow was, uncommonly for him, very sober as he made his way to the door of what was first the Team STRQ house, then became Taiyang and Summer's house where he would stay between missions. Now, though…? He supposed it was going to have to be his home again while he retired from working for Ozpin.

He had told them that he should be the one to go on the mission. He'd said that he had a bad feeling about it, that he could handle it and that they could stay home with the kids. It should have been him. That was the only thing that he could keep thinking. Now, all he could do was tell the girls that their mother and father were never coming back, that he was going to look after them from that point onward.

He sighed as he opened the door only to see a single black feather plummet to the ground, and with its fall, his fears grew.

"Kids?" he called out. When he received no answer, he began to rush through the rooms, trying to find any sign of the pair, "Yang?! Ruby?!" He burst into the master bedroom, hoping that they were just playing hide and seek, only to see a note resting on the bed, his name in Raven's handwriting.

" _Brother, I heard about Tai and Summer. Whether I like it or not, my daughter needs a parent, one that isn't so close to Ozpin. As for the other one, the one that's their daughter… I couldn't leave her, Qrow. I hope you understand why I did this. For what it's worth, I'm sorry you'll have to find out like this. I will raise them to be able to defend themselves. I'll keep you apprised of their development. Your sister, Raven."_

Qrow's legs gave out underneath him by the time he had gotten halfway through the letter. By the time he finished it, he had simply gone numb. He supposed it made sense that this had happened. His bad luck was catching up to him once more. Raven was too smart to keep the camp where he had last seen it after taking the kids. He crushed the letter in his hand as he sat in the empty hallway, reflecting on the past. There used to be laughter here. This house was the last thing he had of happier times in his life, and now it was an empty shell with a bad luck charm in the center of it.

He really needed a drink.

* * *

Sienna Khan was not sure what to make of the child. An Atlesian cell of the White Fang had apparently turned to kidnapping, but when their demands were not met, in fact were outright refused, they had presented the white-haired child to her, and now she was expected to determine what they were to do with her.

The situation was intriguing, made more curious by the little girl's neutral expression.

"Why aren't you afraid?" she asked the girl with a slight tilt of her head.

"I won't be going home one way or another," the girl replied freely, "It's easier to just wait for whatever you decide."

"And what makes you say that?" she asked.

"You're probably going to kill me," she shrugged, "You can't let me go, if you don't kill me."

"You're handling this well," Sienna noted.

"Whatever you do, you can't be worse than my father," she replied freely.

Sienna stared blankly at the girl. This situation had now become interesting.

She made a split decision that would change history.

"Well, come on, then," she said, "Like you said, I can't just let you go. I might as well bring you along for the time being."

* * *

Raven Branwen was, while not a great mother, focused on treating her daughter and her daughter's sister as she felt they rightly deserved. Yang, her blood daughter, was something of a source of pride to her. It was interesting to her, however, that she was more geared towards fighting like her father than like her, with her fists, rather than with a blade. When it came time for Yang to develop a weapon for herself, it was unsurprising that she had designed bracelets that doubled as shotgun gauntlets. It had taken some of both Yang and, though she would deny it, her take from a few SDC train robberies, but the girl had proven quite proficient in weapons engineering and the effort had been worth it.

Summer and Tai's daughter, Raven decided, would be better suited to scythe usage and to that effect arranged for her to have books on the subject and several practice scythes. Were anyone to ask how she had made this decision, she would not have answered.

Regardless, the girl excelled at the practice, and had even designed a scythe-gun out of her shares (which Raven would similarly deny supplementing with some of her own take), and she was quickly becoming a master to the level of… someone else.

At the age of ten, however, Ruby Rose of the Branwen Tribe was discontented. It took her some time to figure out what it was that made her so, but when she figured it out, she knew exactly what it was that made her feel so. Everything she saw amongst people made her less pleased with the state of the world as she knew it. It was not like the stories that Yang would read to her. People were not like the stories. And that simply would not do.

In the middle of the night, Ruby Rose, no longer of the Branwen Tribe, slipped out into the darkness of a new moon. By the time Raven had realized what had happened and let out a search party, she had already boarded a train to Vale.

* * *

Everyone in the White Fang was aware of the one figure other than Adam Taurus that was never seen without their mask. Sienna Khan's right hand was what she was commonly referred to as, which some supposed was because it was practically taboo to mention that she was human, let alone a Schnee, and her mask was one that looked as if it were better suited to a masquerade than a battlefield.

Still, there were very few who could be said to not be relieved that she was on their side, particularly during a heist. Much like her mentor, she was quick on her feet, and very skilled with hit and run tactics. Unlike her mentor, however, the girl used a rapier that doubled as a breach-loading rifle for whatever Dust rounds she had on her bandolier.

There was, however, one person that seemed intent on picking fights with her.

"Schnee," Adam greeted flatly as he approached the door of Sienna Khan's war room, where the fourteen year old was standing guard.

"Taurus," Weiss said coolly, her hand resting lightly on her blade, "In case you weren't aware, there is a meeting with her important lieutenants in progress, and your presence was not requested for it. You will wait here until the meeting is finished."

"I see she left her loyal pet to guard the door," he replied, "I have important information."

"And you do not have permission to enter," she replied as if talking to a small child, "So, the chain of questions is as follows: Is it time sensitive?"

"No," he growled.

"Does it require her immediate attention?" she asked.

"No," he said, and she could see his hand moving towards his blade.

"Does it concern the well-being of the White Fang either your personal cell or as a whole?"

"No," he bit off, his grip tightening on the hilt of his sword.

"Then you will wait here," she said, her hand on the hilt of her own sword.

The pair stood tensely, each clearly eager to draw and slay the other where they stood, only to be cut off by the door opening behind Weiss. Both quickly withdrew their hands from their weapons.

"Adam," Sienna greeted as her other lieutenants exited the room, "What do you need to discuss?"

"There's a caravan of Atlesian military equipment headed towards Mistral," he stated, "I would like to take a small team to intercept it."

"Come inside and talk," she said, "Weiss, join us." After a brief moment of thought, she said, "You can come in as well, Blake."

Weiss nodded at Sienna's orders, sharing a courteous nod with the girl she had come to regard as Adam's shadow as she entered. While she did not like the girl's mentor, she had nothing against the last Belladonna to remain a member of the White Fang.

* * *

Ruby Rose, late of the Branwen Tribe, lined up her shot and fired. The Grimm were easy to kill, and killing them was exhilarating, but what she was doing was just that much more satisfactory. She lined up her shot with the scope she'd developed on the goggles she wore with a slight smile on her face.

Jacques Schnee was her prey, this time, and he was surprisingly easy once she had bribed a maid. Apparently, he had left his youngest daughter to die at the hands of the White Fang, rather than pay her ransom, and his business practices were particularly unethical, treating the Faunus as practical slaves and having Dust mines built as cheaply as possible.

"By the Light of the Brother of Creation and the Darkness of the Brother of Destruction," she murmured, the shot now perfectly lined up, "You, Jacques Schnee are found wanting. Since they're not handling you, themselves, though…" She pulled the trigger and a very large splatter of blood painted the practically destroyed chest of the man who had been standing at his window with the force of a 50 caliber armor-piercing round. "May the Brothers judge you properly."

Nodding to herself over a good job done well, she pulled up her hood and vanished in a stream of red rose petals.

'People,' she mused, 'Are where the real monsters come from, when you get down to it.'

To her, the Grimm, while flesh-eating demons, were lacking in any direct malice. Sure, they were drawn in by negative emotions, but it wasn't as if they toyed with their victims. If you wanted to see true evil, she believed, you had to look for the right sort of person. So, she hunted those sort of people. It was time to move again. Rumor had it there were some people in Vale that required her special attention.

* * *

Raven was perched on the gate of the Tribe's latest base when she saw her daughter sneaking out. Flying down, she turned into her human form and asked, "What are you doing, Yang?"

"I've got a contact that might have a lead on Ruby," Yang said, "I need to check this out."

She stared at her daughter, who had a determined gleam in her eye that was painfully like Tai's eyes when he had an idea in his head. This had been happening more and more frequently, but she could understand what Yang was feeling.

"You have three days to go. I expect you to message me when you've made contact," she said after almost a minute of silence had passed.

Yang nodded quietly before mounting her bike and riding off.

* * *

Weiss was quick and quiet as she moved, as were the other members of this particular strike team, aboard a train to Vale. Blake was gone, according to Adam, and Sienna had been too busy with other matters to handle the issue, leaving it as only her, Ilia Amitola, and Adam, with Sienna appointing her strike team leader. She ran her thumb along the grip of Myrtenaster, the sword she had forged with stolen Atlesian steel from the SDC, with its revolving Dust chambers.

"Ilia, go scout ahead," she said to the one she didn't dislike, "Recon only. Do not engage."

Once Ilia had left, she turned towards Adam and said, "Alright. I don't like you, and you don't like me, but if we…" she was cut off by him suddenly ramming the hilt of his blade into her diaphragm, knocking the air out of her lungs.

"I'm not taking orders from a human, whether or not you are Sienna Khan's little pet," he said, taking Myrtenaster as she fought to bet air back in her lungs, "It's a shame that you were captured by some guard bots. I tried to help you, but you told me to run and get Ilia out." He pulled an alarm and tossed Myrtenaster into the next compartment, which contained two security spider bots, then shoved her in after, slamming the door shut behind her. Grabbing Myrtenaster, she began to fight for her life, forming what glyphs came to her instinctively. Had she been raised in the family manor, she would have had access to books on the topic, but she had instead grown with the few she knew by nature. Now, she was going to have to make the most of them.

* * *

Ruby Rose was intrigued by the pair that approached her, who she watched through the black lenses of her goggles.

"You're a hard woman to find," the taller, a black haired woman with gleaming amber eyes, noted, "But then, I expected no less from someone with your reputation?"

"My reputation?" Ruby asked mildly. She knew that she did not like this woman, but she would at the very least see what the woman wanted from her.

"Everyone's heard about the Red Death," she replied, "The Assassin's Assassin. They say that if you, personally want someone dead, they will be dead in time."

"Why are you looking for me?" Ruby asked, examining the shorter, a dark-skinned girl with green hair and red eyes.

"I'm looking for people who want to change the world," the woman said in a silky voice, "People with the skills necessary for it. We're in the same business, you and I."

"Nope," Ruby replied, "Not interested in remaking the world in your image."

"You don't seem to understand," the woman said, seeming unconcerned, "You are exactly what I'm looking for. A killer of your abilities is invaluable. Surely we can come to a mutually beneficial arrangement."

"You disgust me, Cinder Fall," she replied, causing the woman to pause in surprise, "You're… unsightly. You kill, manipulate, and torture for power, like all the rest of the monsters in human skin."

"That sounds like you're refusing," the woman said darkly, a bow made of glass forming in her hand, "Are you sure you want to try that?"

A single shot blasted the weapon out of Cinder's hands, a second round, this one Fire Dust, burned one of her eyes and a third would have killed her if the green-haired one had not leapt into the path of the bullet. When Cinder tried to summon the Grimm attached to her to deal with the nuisance, however, Ruby fired another round, causing the creature to retreat. Cinder, for her part, lifted a Fire Dust crystal and lit it ablaze with her fire, causing an explosion that she used to flee, leaving Emerald to die of her injury as Ruby retreated with the bleeding.

"Cinder…" she called out brokenly, reaching for where the woman had been standing.

"You're not going to die," Ruby said, "You proved you're a real person. I won't let you die for a monster."

* * *

Weiss panted after all that effort had finally paid off. She had destroyed the sentries, leaving her with only a quarter of her mask shattered and a bloody cut over her eye that mirrored where the mask had broken. This settled it for her. Adam Taurus was going to die. Clearly, he only cared about the revolution as a means of gaining power.

Idly, she wondered if he had killed Blake Belladonna, but her thoughts were stopped when she a score of Atlesian soldiers waiting outside of the train as she tried to slip into the shadows. As they all raised their rifles at her to show that she could not escape, she offered a smirk before holding up her index finger in a "one second" gesture before taking out her personal scroll, typed out a message, sent it, then tossed the scroll into the air, shooting it with three perfectly-aimed rounds from the dagger on her hip that she had modeled after Myrtenaster's predecessor, destroying it utterly.

"Drop your weapons, Faunus!" the one taking the lead demanded.

"Human, actually," she replied, sheathing her dagger before quickly drawing Myrtenaster, "Unfortunately, I do have places to be, so…"

She tossed a smoke grenade into the crowd and tried to make good her escape, only to be stopped by a drunken man in a tattered red cape who was clearly not one of the soldiers, going both by his attire and the fact that he was holding a colossal scythe, who had a tired look in his eye as he said, "Weiss Schnee… I owe your sister a favor so, lucky you, I'm getting you out of here." When the soldiers arrived, he turned towards them with his scroll and said, "S'all right, guys. Official Valean Huntsman business. This is my apprentice, who ran off ahead of me. Kids…"

The leader narrowed his eyes, before glancing at his own scroll for anything on the drunk. After a moment, he said, "Men, inspect the train. We don't know what those White Fang riffraff did."

Once they had gotten away from the group, Weiss asked, "Who are you, and what are Atlesian soldiers doing in Vale?"

"Qrow Branwen," he replied, "Unofficially Semi-Retired Professional Huntsman. And you would be Weiss Schnee, who's apparently moonlighting as a member of the White Fang. And I thought I had family problems. I've gotta ask: Were you the one who did Jacques? I'm not against it having been done. I'm just curious."

Weiss paused and turned to look at him as she asked, "He's finally dead?"

"Not many people can take a fifty-cal to the chest and live. But I'm guessing that wasn't you. Come on. Your sister's in town, luckily, so we can talk all about this when you see her."

Weiss followed numbly, trying to process just what had happened that evening. She knew that it wasn't a White Fang attack that had taken him, at least, as she was certain that Sienna would have told her, but that left the question of who had killed him and exactly why they did so.


	11. Convergence

Convergence

I don't own RWBY. This Episode is related to Episode 10, and is therefore part of the Clean Slate 'Verse.

"I thought I told you to leave," Ruby noted dryly to the green-haired girl who had been following her ever since she bandaged up her wounds.

"Let me help you," Emerald demanded, "I owe you my life."

"I've seen your life," Ruby said, "No thanks. You don't understand Judgement like I do. You just don't get it."

"Then teach me," Emerald pleaded "Make me your disciple."

Ruby stared at her for a short while before simply saying, "Nope."

"Come on!" Emerald protested racing behind her as best she could as Ruby vanished in a stream of rose petals, "You have a scythe-gun, my guns are sickles! I'm the perfect disciple!"

* * *

Adam Taurus was not sure what was going on when he was called into Sienna Khan's war room some time after the heist in which he had gotten rid of the Schnee. He was even more confused when he realized that the rest of her trusted lieutenants and their seconds were in the room, while his own second-in command was not.

"Adam," the leader of the White Fang greeted cordially, "I've heard that your cell has been busy in Vale as of late."

"We've been moving a good deal of Dust," he replied, "We've received a benefactor who is willing to aid in the cause."

"I recall the Vale branch having been troubled after the loss of their leader," she said, "I, for one, was very upset to hear that Weiss had died holding the line when the strike team that she had been leading had been up against some sentry bots."

"She died a credit to the cause," he said, the words tasting bitter in his mouth even if it was his own lie.

"I had forgotten," she said idly, "You were the third man of that strike team, weren't you?"

"Yes, Great Leader," he answered, "I was the one she ordered to get myself and the other member out of there."

"Perhaps you can answer a question for me, then," she said, "I find myself wondering why I received a message from Weiss's personal scroll, encoded in a manner that only she and I use to communicate for security purposes, which stated, 'Not dead. Taurus tried to kill me, but it didn't work. Will contact if possible.' I would love to hear how you think that came to pass."

The room was now very tense, with the words hanging heavily in the air. As the lieutenants began to reach for their weapons, Adam grabbed the hilt of his sword, only to feel a painful electric shock that sent him to the ground.

"Thank you, Ilia," Sienna stated as the chameleon Faunus made herself visible from the shadowed pillar she had been standing against, her weapon still crackling with electricity, "Now, Adam, you are to be executed, obviously. Ilia, you're dismissed. Please go to the Vale branch and inform them that Adam Taurus has been executed as a traitor to the White Fang, and that they are, for the moment, recalled back to Menagerie for further assignments. Once you have done soI am personally charging you with locating Weiss and either aiding her in whatever her current endeavor is that is keeping her."

"Yes, ma'am," she said immediately with a bow as one of the loyal lieutenants took Adam's weapons from him and ripped his mask from his face, binding his arms behind his back.

* * *

"So, Junior," Yang said cheerfully, "Do you want to tell me what you heard, or do you want me to beat you and your men to within an inch of your lives again? Or, I could call the tribe over once and we can get the information the boss lady's way."

"Look," he answered as people rushed out of the bar, "You've got to understand, all I've heard are rumors."

"Rumors are good," she replied just as cheerfully as before, "What kind have you got?"

"Supposedly, there's a killer loose," he said, polishing off the newest counter, which had been replaced after her last 'visit' to the bar, "They call her 'The Red Death.'"

"'The Red Death?'" she asked skeptically.

"I don't make the names," he replied, "Thing is, the whole thing sounds like a ghost story to me. Supposedly, she shows up in a kingdom, looking like a little Grim Reaper with a red cloak and a massive scythe, then disappears in a stream of rose petals. After she's been sighted, someone in the kingdom dies, usually at the end of a fifty caliber sniper rifle. Stories say that she leaves a red rose sitting where she shot from. Rumor has it she's been spotted somewhere in Vale recently, so a lot of people are getting spooked. Even Torchwick's laying low."

At that moment, the door to the club was blasted in by the force of what could only be assumed to be a stronger missile than the ones that Junior used before a swarm of blood red rose petals streamed into the bar, stopping at the bar as they blurred into the form of a girl in a red hood. Apparently following her was a green-haired girl with red eyes, but the hooded girl paid her no heed as she entered.

"They call you Junior," she said, a glint of silver pinning the man into place, "A middle man."

"Are you here to kill me?" he asked, his eyes on the wicked scythe-gun that she held as if it were as light as a feather.

"That would be counterproductive," she said, "And you are not worth judgement. You are a lesser evil, but you are human."

"Ruby?" Yang asked with trepidation as she slowly walked towards the girl, "Is that you?"

"Hi, Yang," she replied, not taking her eyes off of Junior, "I'm a little busy at the moment. Junior, there's someone I'm looking for. A woman by the name of Cinder Fall. This is where she would have gone to hire some muscle after the White Fang left town. You'd recognize her by the eye I shot out."

"Where have you been?" Yang demanded, "You've had us all worried sick. Mom sent out search parties. I've been all over looking for you, but I was always too late from the sightings."

"Emerald," Ruby said, "If you are going to follow me around for the time being, please be useful and continue talking with Junior. Be polite. I need to speak with my sister."

At that, Emerald had taken the space that Ruby had been occupying while Ruby led her further away from the actual bar so that they could talk.

"I've been working, Yang," Ruby said, "Delivering Justice to those who deserve it. I didn't want to go back to the Tribe, otherwise I would have."

"But, why?" Yang asked, "Why'd you leave home?"

"That wasn't home," Ruby said, "Not to me. You're Raven's daughter, not me. I was taken in out of her love of Mom and Dad. You got training for a fighting style that you chose. I was given a scythe to practice with without any questions. We both know that it wasn't because she knew I would choose it." She reached for the canteen on her hip and took a drink of her water, "She wanted to replace Uncle Qrow in the Tribe. Even if she doesn't admit it, she misses her brother. I wasn't going to be her replacement."

"You weren't anyone's replacement, Ruby," Yang replied.

"And yet you had to look for me when she has her Semblance," Ruby replied, "Besides, I have to answer a much higher calling than killing people for money and food, and things like that."

"Yeah, you assassinate people," Yang noted dryly, "You're a saint."

"I judge the wicked," Ruby corrected, "Every soul I take deserved it, and every soul I will take will have deserved it. Since the Brothers do not do it themselves, it falls to me to do their work for them."

"Isn't that a Mistralian pickpocket you've got trailing behind you?" Yang asked, "One that turned down the Tribe's offer to join?"

"She's a fanatic," Ruby replied, "One who found out the person she followed wasn't worth following. Since I saved her life, she won't stop following me. Besides, I could say that her turning down the Tribe's offer is a point in her favor."

"Oh, come on, Rubes, you don't mean that," Yang said with a slight chuckle.

Ruby stood there with a blank expression on her face.

"Anyway, who are you even here for?" Yang pressed on.

"Cinder Fall," Ruby replied, "She got away."

"You missed a shot?" she asked incredulously.

"I didn't miss," Ruby said flatly, "Emerald literally leapt into the path and got left on the side of the road like litter."

"Of course she wasn't there," a distantly familiar voice grumbled as two sets of footsteps could be heard at the entrance, "Just my luck that she left before I could get you to…"

Everyone's eyes were locked on the door as a scraggly man with a white cape casually strolled through the remains of the door, a girl wearing a White Fang mask that was half-broken on one of the eyes following behind him, clearly waiting to find the right moment to leave. He, however, stopped in his tracks as he stared at the two sisters.

"Firecracker? Pipsqueak?" he asked, his eyes darting between the pair, "Ruby?! Yang?!"

"Oh, shoot," Yang whispered as she turned herself and Ruby to avoid looking at Qrow, remembering that her uncle knowing about her meant that Ozpin definitely knew, and that was something her mother had told her only ever led to trouble.

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby greeted as he rushed to them and hugged them tightly, "I'd love to catch up, but I've got my calling to heed. I just need some information from Junior and Cinder Fall will be no more."

That caused him to suddenly stiffen as he pulled back from the pair to get a better look at them. After a brief examination, he sighed tiredly.

"Of course," he said, "Just my luck… I see Raven got you both into the family business."

"They're your family, too," Yang argued.

"I'll accept that you, Ruby, and Raven are family, and even Raven's on thin ice," he said, "But the rest of my family shares a gravestone in Patch."

Ruby tilted her head as she glanced at the girl that Qrow had come in with.

"Weiss Schnee," she noted, "Right Hand of the White Fang. I don't suppose you could tell me where Cinder Fall or your subordinate, Adam Taurus would be."

"I don't know a Cinder Fall, and if my message got through, Adam should either be in a dungeon or dead by now."

"I see," she replied, "Alright, then."

Qrow sighed and said, "Anyone in here that is not involved in anything illegal, raise your hand."

When no one did so, he let out another sigh, before signaling Junior to pour him a shot of whiskey.

"Alright," he said, "So we've got the trusted lieutenant of a known terrorist organization who happens to be the heiress to the corporation that said organization fights the most often, the daughter of the head of the most infamous bandit tribe, and a serial killer that has James Ironwood's attention. This is typical of my luck. Here's what we're going to do. I'm taking all of you to Beacon. I know a guy who owes me a favor that can help."

* * *

"…And… there… we… go!" Jaune Arc said cheerfully as he finished his current project, removing the loupe from over his eye as he held up one of the forms for his bodyguard, "Aren't these beautiful? I think this might be my best work, Pyrrha."

"I don't think I've ever seen such a perfect copy of a Beacon admissions form," a familiar gruff voice said, causing Pyrrha to tense, her hand on her javelin, "You even got Oz's signature just right."

"Who are you?" Pyrrha glared at the intruder in the red cape, "Please identify yourself."

"It's fine, Pyrrha," Jaune said tiredly, "I know him. What do you want, Qrow?"

"Don't worry," Qrow said cheerfully, "I'm actually here to call in your marker on an easy job."

"Why do I get the feeling that your definition of easy is not the same as mine?"

"I need four forms for Beacon," Qrow said after doing a headcount of whoever was outside.

"Three," the Red Death corrected as she, the Number Two of the White Fang, and what appeared to be one of the Branwen bandit tribe entered, followed by a girl with green hair that said serial killer turned towards, "I told you that I was not going to take you for my disciple."

Jaune was not going to even question that.

"This one'll take a couple hours," he noted, "And I'm going to need a good idea of what you want their histories to be."

"Histories, Jaune Arc, master forger?" the Red Death asked, "What do you mean?"

"Pyrrha and I are coming from a very small school with no digital records," he explained, deliberately not questioning how she knew who he was, "It's easier to go with something people don't bother to look into."

"Apprenticeships," Qrow said, gesturing at Ruby and Yang, "Private school, practically off the grid," he gestured at Weiss. He tilted his head for a second, "Also, a different surname for her for the time being. Any preferences, Ice Princess?"

"Khan," she replied immediately.

"I can't believe she said that I should go through with this stupid idea," the blond of the group noted, "She's the one who always said not to trust him."

"Beacon's the best of the best Academies," Qrow replied, "She probably wants you to get stronger. At the rate you're going, she's probably already set you up to take over the tribe after she's done with it."

"Well, this should be interesting, at least," Pyrrha offered, resting a comforting hand on Jaune's shoulder while she, herself, was still positioned so that she would be ready for an attack at any moment.

"Where'd you even get that bodyguard?" Qrow asked idly.

"Pyrrha Nikos," Ruby said, "I've heard of you, too."

"Several people have," Pyrrha noted.

"Most of them are dead, now," Ruby said with a nostalgic smile.

"Can we focus on the task at hand," Qrow asked, "Like I said, we need those forms. It's not like there are other arrangements we can use for it."

* * *

Elsewhere, a black-haired cat Faunus sneezed. Beacon was going to be her new start. The White Fang had been getting more and more violent, so she felt she needed to make up for her past misdeeds.

Fortunately, she knew of a way to get an application that few would think of, one which wouldn't even need any forged papers. And it was highly unlikely that anyone who knew her from the White Fang would find her there.

* * *

"We've got a few weeks to get everything set," Qrow continued, "but we need to make sure everyone's set for it. Got it?"

As he got murmured agreements, the unofficially semi-retired Huntsman wondered if there was anyone who had to deal with the sort of chaos he had to?

* * *

Were he to express his opinion on the matter, James Ironwood would have admitted that he was somewhat disappointed. After getting Professor Nikola Polendina to retrofit his creation, the robot girl designated P.E.N.N.Y., with a modification that would allow her to analyze crime patterns, which should have, in theory, been of use in the hunt for the elusive Red Death, said girl had stated that she could find no pattern to speak of.

He supposed that it had been a hopeless flight of fancy. There hadn't been a single breakthrough in the case before, so he shouldn't have been surprised when she turned up nothing. Dismissing the pair, he returned to his office.

Later, however, when Professor Polendina had settled down for the night, Penny made her decision.

She had not lied to the General, per se, her hiccups would have prevented her from doing so. Instead, she had simply said a shade of the truth. The truth was, in her mind, nothing to speak of. It was sacred, in a sense. The works of the Red Death were done in the name of justice. Armed with her ability to access any files and look at everything plainly, she found something beautiful. The Red Death only went for those that society failed to punish, those terrible monsters who slipped through the cracks through either money or trickery.

The mission was sensational, and Penny had been told that saving the world was her duty. And so, she slipped off of the base into the night, off to seek the Red Death, so that she could join her in bringing about Justice.

She was combat ready.


	12. No Substitutions, Exchanges, or Refunds

No Substitutions, Exchanges, or Refunds

I don't own RWBY This Episode is related to Episode 10 and Episode 11, and is therefore part of the Clean Slate 'Verse.

Mercury Black wasn't sure what to make of the strange orange-haired girl that had just literally decapitated his father before leaving a pair of copper coins with a rose emblazoned upon each over his eyes, but then, he supposed that if it left Marcus Black dead, he didn't rightly care. However strange this was, he doubted that she was worse than his father, so he took to following her.

"Heed my words well, Mercury Black," the girl stated after some time of their traveling, "If you are to continue traveling with me, you must know that we kill only in the name of great justice. We are the followers of the Red Death. We are the punishment of the monsters that escape justice, no more and no less."

"Got it," he replied, "Where exactly are we going, though?"

"Beacon Academy," she replied, "You need to learn proper discipline and I need to learn more human behaviors, and neither of us are fit to teach the other. Beacon, as the best of the Huntsman Academies, is the most logical place to go for such lessons. Do you have an issue with the matter?"

"Okay, but don't they have tests and papers to get into there?" he asked, having a general idea of how Academies worked.

"There are ways around that," she replied freely, "But, I at least, shall need a pseudonym. Penny Copper should suffice. Would you care to have a pseudonym as well?"

"It wouldn't help any," he shrugged, "Not like anyone knew my dad anyway. At least, no one who would have any business being at a school like that. On the other hand, getting some distance from him would be nice… Mercury Iron? Quicksilver? Obsidian? That one sounds pretty cool. Let's do that one."

* * *

A recently one-eyed woman stared blankly at the charred ashes of the assassin's house. The past week just seemed to not be her week.

* * *

If there was one thing that Ilia Amitola was good at outside of stealth, it was tracking. Thus far, she had managed to trace the train that she had been on, finding a section of Weiss's mask, which led her to the name of a semi-retired Huntsman by the name of Qrow Branwen. A few questions of the right people let her know that he was an alcoholic, which, in turn, led her to the local bars. Further prodding led her to a classy dive, two words she didn't think were compatible until that day, named Junior's. A quick showing of her mask and some pointed questions led her to the counterfeiter Jaune Arc, which brought her to her current situation.

"Who are you and why did you kick in our door?" the redhaired amazon demanded of her as she pinned her to the floor, the cutting edge of the blade of her javelin resting lightly beside the chameleon Faunus's cheek while her sword flew away from her hand.

"Oh, for the love of…" the blond at the desk grumbled in frustration, plucking the loupe from his eye, "Do you have any idea how many hours of work you almost cost? Travel papers, passports, admission letters… I swear, if one more person bursts into this place with demands, I'm gonna just burn this entire building to the ground." He sighed. "How can I help you?"

"You know what organization I am a part of. I have been sent by the Great Leader to find her Right Hand and aid her in her endeavors," she stated with dignity, as if she weren't being pinned, "I have been told she came here in the company of one Qrow Branwen."

"Of course this sort of thing is happening," he sighed, "Question, though. What is my business, again?"

"You're a counterfeiter," she replied.

"And what do counterfeiters do?" he pressed, gesturing for the amazon to let her get up.

"You falsify documents," she replied, "Presumably for some price or another."

"So, what part of my operation would say that I would give away the information of someone who may or may not have come through my place of business?" he asked, "People wouldn't exactly keep coming to me if they thought that I was going to tell anyone who asked about potential clients. If you want to pass on a message, I'll see if I can get it to the person in question, but that's about all I could do for you."

Ilia was about to release a sarcastic response when she saw a familiar white ponytail from a nearby doorway.

"Weiss?!" she called out, causing the figure to pause and glance through the doorway.

"Ilia?" she asked, staring at the girl, her mask broken in one spot and bandages over some cuts underneath it, "Is that you?"

"You had us all worried," she said, rushing towards the sole human member of the White Fang and enveloping her in a tight hug, "I was sent to help you in whatever it is you're doing."

"Enrolling at Beacon," Weiss responded, "I got roped into it by a drunk Huntsman, but I think that getting lessons from the premier Hunter Academy would be very useful when we return to the fold. What happened to the rest of my team?"

"Summoned back to Menagerie," she replied, "And Adam either is set to be or was executed for betraying you."

"It sounds like you need another admission form…" Jaune sighed as Pyrrha flew Ilia's sword bak to the Chameleon Faunus, "I'm saying that you were tutored with her so I can just set up a backstory that works without me putting in that much effort, Ilia…"

"Amitola," Ilia replied, sheathing her sword, "How much will this cost me?"

"This time, nothing," he replied tiredly, taking out a blank paper, some official Valean ink, a fountain pen, and his loupe, "Same as that one girl. I'm just counting you as part of a friend's marker, since you're sticking with one of the people he asked me to make these for."

As he started working, there was a polite knock at the door.

Jaune sighed in frustration. "You two, go to the back. White Fang members make people antsy, especially the Faunus clients."

Before the two could react to that statement, they found themselves being lifted by their weapons and promptly shoved through a door that was shut by magnetic forces acting on the handle. When the knock repeated, Pyrrha took her position next to Jaune and used her Semblance to open the door.

This led to a red-haired girl who could be described as energy incarnate to burst through excitedly, glancing around as if she were pretending to be a secret agent, despite the colossal hammer she was holding with ease. Behind her entered a boy with black hair and pink highlights, who, going by his calm demeanor, was the one who had been doing the knocking.

"How can I help you?" Jaune asked, looking carefully to figure out what he could about them. They didn't look like they were on the run, but their clothes weren't in the best state, with the girl's hammer, in particular, looking a bit messy.

"My name is Lie Ren, and this is Nora Valkyrie. We were told that you were the person to talk to about some documents…" the boy said carefully.

Sighing, he voiced his suspicion, "Let me guess: Beacon Academy acceptance letters?"

"Transcripts for any school that would be believable and difficult to check. We have acceptance letters, but we were told in the additional letter that we would need to provide documentation, since we claimed that we were from an Academy."

"Sounds easy enough," he replied, "I've got some academies that we can fake your transcripts for with no questions. I've got a couple jobs to finish up, first, but it'll be done before the Bullheads come in."

"How much do we owe you?" the girl, Nora asked.

"This one's on the house," Jaune replied, "And you two can have one of the guest rooms in here to stay in while you wait. There's a lab to fix up your weapons, and you can take whatever you want from the clothing rack in there, too. Just know that I've got a few other people using some of the guest rooms already."

"That's extremely generous of you," Ren noted.

"Hey, we're going to be classmates," Jaune replied easily, slipping back into his role, "Might as well make friends early on."

It was at that exact moment that Yang apparently decided to come to the front.

"Hey!" she cheerily said as the two new clients tensed, "I know you two! You took stuff from the Tribe! Nice…"

"You're one of those bandits?" Nora asked, her hand sliding into a ready grip while Ren's arms tensed, no doubt meant to activate whatever his weapons were. Yang, for her part, grinned at the fact that there was going to be a fight. If Jaune knew anything about the Branwen Tribe, and he prided himself on knowing about a lot of things in the criminal underground, she was planning on testing them for recruitment into the Tribe.

"Pyrrha," he asked, deliberately maintaining his calm, "Could you…?"

"On it," she replied before all three parties were promptly disarmed.

"Thank you, Pyrrha," he said, before getting up from his desk and amiably say, "Now, even if we're leaving, I'd like to have my building not be turned into a tumbled down fight club. So, I would appreciate it if you didn't try to have a brawl! In my office! Please!"

When they all took on a relaxed stance, he sighed, "Thank you."

"You will get your weapons back later," Pyrrha stated plainly, "When we're assured that you won't fight with one another in here."

* * *

Meanwhile, in the back room, Qrow was speaking with his younger niece.

"I don't suppose you had any students that you did take on…?" he prompted.

"Like I told Emerald," she replied, "I don't take on students. Why?"

"Well, someone's been hunting down some untouchable people recently. Criminals with connections in the Atlesian military, authority figures that abuse their powers off the books… Things like that."

"And that ties to me, how?" she asked, "Figures like that make a lot of enemies."

"The bodies are found with copper coins over their eyes," he said, "Copper coins with a thorny rose imprinted onto them."

"Interesting…" she murmured, "Get me a list of the people they dealt with. I'll judge if they acted in the name of Justice."

"Really?" Emerald asked incredulously, "All someone taking up your mission gets is an 'interesting.' You keep telling me that you won't take up a disciple because no one understands your concept of justice and this person is literally acting just like one!"

"If they are in the wrong, they will be dead by my scythe," she replied simply, "If they are right, then they are divinely inspired in the same way that I am. I won't stop Justice just because I am not the one bringing it to light. The world will be as good a place as it is in the stories. If others manage to see the problems as clearly as I do, then it means that Justice will be served, but it is not meant to be solely my job. You might understand, in time."

* * *

The days passed rather quickly, with the various people of less-than-reputable backgrounds getting prepared for going to start their classes, until it came to the day that the Bullheads were to pick up the students to take them to Beacon Academy.

It was a quirk of possibility that three particular individuals were on the same airship.

"Blake?!" Ilia asked in surprise, causing the black-haired girl wearing a bow over her cat ears to freeze in her tracks.

Before she could recover and rush away, she was promptly greeted by a flash of white hair from her right.

"It is you," Weiss noted, "We thought Adam had… gotten rid of you…"

"What are you two talking about?" she asked nervously, hoping that they would believe she was someone else entirely.

"We used to work at the same office as you," Ilia stated pointedly, flanking her on the left, "You didn't have a bow back then… "

"You must have the wrong person," Blake said flatly, her bow going flat as she blinked at the scar on Weiss's face.

"We could settle this pretty easily," Weiss replied, "Why don't you take off that bow of yours?"

"Do you want the truth?" Blake asked flatly, "The truth is that I felt that the… company was going in a different direction than what I had been expecting when I had first been a member."

"The head of the organization did take a harsher approach than the previous leader had, but it was working," Weiss argued, "Adam was taking it to a place that she didn't approve of. He's been terminated recently, after his plans led to unfortunate circumstances." At that, she ran her finger along the top of her scar.

"And how does that equal you being here?" she pressed.

"I ran into a semi-retired Huntsman, whatever that means, and he got me enrolled," she shrugged, "Ilia's here to back me up."

"I see…" Blake said, "I'd prefer if this didn't get back to her."

"We're not here for you," Ilia replied, "There's no point in trying to force you to come back. Right, Weiss?"

Weiss gave Blake a calculating look before she said, "It's a volunteer service meant to help the community. If you're not there willingly, then you shouldn't be there. I don't see why we'd need to tell anyone about this."

Unsaid but understood by Blake was the fact that Weiss clearly intended to try to persuade her to rejoin. Ilia sighed. She supposed that, at the very least, it would be interesting to watch.


	13. Undead Hunters

Undead Hunters

I don't own RWBY or Zombie Land Saga, from which I have taken the general shape of the premise.

The girl in the hooded cloak blinked in confusion as she sat seemingly alone in the dark room. Silver eyes tried to focus to find any movement, but she could only see a faint green glow flickering in one corner of the room. It was at that moment that there was the sound of metal scraping against stone. Acting on instinct that she didn't really understand, she reached behind her and drew what seemed to be a rifle. Outside the building, the light of a broken moon was revealed as the clouds passed it. It was then that she learned that she was not alone in the room. In point of fact, there were eight others in there.

A white-haired girl was loosely gripping a colossal rapier, which seemed to be the source of the scraping. A golden-haired girl was lurching with staggering steps aimlessly, occasionally bumping into a similarly aimless girl with cat ears and what looked like a hilt attached to a massive sheath and ribbon on her back. Two more, an orange-haired girl and a boy with black hair with pink highlights, were both walking into the same corner repeatedly, with the girl's massive hammer hanging by her side while the boy's hand remained in hers. There were three others, a redheaded girl in dull grey armor that kept aggressively slamming into a blond in blood-stained white armor that had a sheathed sword on his hip. The final one was another orange-haired girl who had a pair of swords in her hand.

Those were the parts that made sense to her. The terrifying part, however, was the fact that she could tell that they were not alive, and not just by the greying skin that all but one of the people she was currently sharing a room with had. The white-haired girl had stitches along the side of her face and was missing an eye where the stitches were. The golden-blond girl was practically a patchwork of grey and black when it came to her skin, and looked as if she had died fighting something big that had not been merciful. The catgirl, in contrast, was noticeable as her black coat was riddled with bullet holes.

The two in the corner, when they finally turned and were staggering away from it, revealed jagged tears on the stomach sections of their shirts, through which, she could make out equally jagged stitch-work, clearly meant to hold whatever was left in there inside. When the two armored figures turned towards her, the blond boy showed a huge, piercing wound where his heart would have been beneath his armor that revealed more stitched-together flesh. The girl, meanwhile, was sporting a lot of stitching around the center of her neck, which she suspected was all that was holding it together.

The final member, however, was the more terrifying sight. One eye flickering faintly, the other cracked with fragments of practically powdered glass spilling out. A massive hole could be seen in the torso, revealing all manners of mechanical components that were clicking, whirring, and otherwise moving in a locked manner that resembled a clock with a broken cog. Her arms were being held in place by steel wire that acted more as a means of keeping them there than actually allowing the arm to move. The lower half of her body wasn't even actually attached to her.

And then all of them had begun to move towards her.

At this den of horror's approach, her only reaction was to instinctively convert the rifle into a massive scythe. Just as she got into a combat stance she somehow knew, she heard the sound of someone clearing his voice as the lights in the room turned on suddenly.

"Well, someone's awake earlier than expected…" a tanned boy with oddly-colored eyes noted as he walked into the room with a slight limp, using a cane that was clearly too large for him. In his other hand, there was what looked to be a pitcher of ice water. "You probably have questions. Put that scythe down, please."

"Who are you? Who am I? Where am I? Who are they? What are they? What is she?!" That last question was emphasized with a point towards the one that was full of mechanical components.

"In order?" he said, "I'm Oscar Pine, except for the times that I'm not. You're Ruby Rose. We're in the remains of Beacon Academy. I'll get back to who they are in a moment. All of you except for the one you pointed at are zombies, and she's a robot."

"Wait," she said, lowering the scythe, "What do you mean I'm a zombie?"

"It's easier to show you. Pull back your hood, please."

When she did so, he threw the contents of the pitcher at her face before putting a mirror in her hand and raising it to her face. Before she could question anything, she realized her natural skin color was washing away like makeup, revealing scars over her eyes. Her scythe, meanwhile, was revealed to be rusted along the blades. Glancing at the other undead, she realized that the only two with relatively uncorroded weapons were the golden-haired girl and the robot, though the former had the golden paint chipped and the latter had burns along the tips of the blades.

"Now, I'd rather we all go downstairs for this, so you handle her and I'll get the rest of the crowd gathered. The door's that way."

Carefully, Ruby grabbed the robot by the arm and led her towards the door he indicated, heading towards some sort of basement.

* * *

After a few minutes, Oscar came in, the zombies following him as he carried a plate of raw meat, before he placed it on the table.

"Now, I'd been hoping that you would all be awake for this, but you can just fill the others in afterwards," he said.

"Will you just tell me what's going on?" she asked crossly as she adjusted the robot's position so that she wasn't about to topple over.

"Alright," he replied, "So, all of you died. So did I, but I'm a special case. Since we've been losing Huntsmen and Huntresses left and right, I talked him into letting me use some of our magic to bring some back from the dead. We need to keep the Grimm from overtaking everything. So, I chose to go for a few legends."

"Legends?" she asked, looking at the corpses that were helping themselves to the meat.

"Weiss Schnee," he said, gesturing at the white-haired girl, "The legendary sister of the famous Nicholas Schnee, she left behind a record number of dead Grimm in her path, rivaled only by the Grimm Reaper, who was a close second. Died in combat with a swordswoman who was working for Salem, but she managed to kill her as well."

"Who's…?"

"The iconic duo of Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie!" he pressed onward, gesturing at the black-haired boy and the orange-haired girl leaning against one another, "Champions of the village of Kuroyuri, this pair had managed to protect their village from both Grimm and bandit clans for three years before their untimely deaths at the hand of the Nuckelavee Grimm, but not before the villagers managed to flee from that place, causing there to only be two casualties, who took out a Grimm that had killed Huntsmen and Huntresses for decades.

"One of the top-tier assassins of the Faunus military during the Faunus Rights Revolution, Blake Belladonna could finish off even a room full of Beowolves in a matter of minutes," he continued with a gesture towards the cat girl, as if he were advertising her, "She was given bad intel and found herself captured by an entire military base's worth of soldiers and was executed by a firing squad.

"Clad in his white, shining armor, Jaune Arc's entire military career in Vale during the Great War consisted of finding his troops in impossible situations and pulling through no matter the odds," he said, gesturing at the blond boy before then gesturing towards the redhaired girl, "While clad in her grey armor, Miss Nikos was the victorious champion of Mistral. They quickly became the symbol of each side, and both died in battle, him being speared through the heart, her by being decapitated."

"And the last two?" she asked.

"Yang Xiao Long is the one with the golden hair and she had what might have been the most impressive ending of this group, amongst the former humans, at least," he said, "During the Fall of Beacon, which is when the previous me died, incidentally, she died after quite literally punching three of a Wyvern Grimm's eyes into bleeding pulps before it caught her between its teeth. I suspect you can guess what happened after that point. Penny Polendina, meanwhile, was the one that killed the Wyvern. They had both done significant damage to one another, but she knew that she would be unable to last for much longer, so she flew into its mouth and down its throat before activating her self-destruct sequence, taking the monster with her."

"What about me?" she asked.

"Died in an ambush, from what the reports said," he replied, "The damage was mostly on your back, except for the eyes, which were posthumous. It was a pretty quiet funeral. Not that great of a turnout, all things considered. I think one of me was there. For the record, the me before me thought this was a good idea, though I disagreed with me on who to bring back."

"What?" she asked in confusion, "Please explain that last sentence."

"Well, I'm part of a long line of people who got tagged by one of two Gods to have this one guy's soul shoved into mine. After we took a bad hit in numbers, we wound up needing to come up with a new strategy. So, I talked with what was left of the previous me. We agreed that it would be best to use some of the magic we had left to revive people who could take up the fight again. I figured that legends would be the best choice. He thought it could be a problem later down the line, but I pointed out that we were already in a bad place and we needed to be at least a little picky. So, here we are. Other than that, we don't exactly have much to go with."

"Um… I have one more question…"

"Go ahead," he replied, "But please make it quick. I've got someone I need to talk to first thing tomorrow morning, and trust me, me not being on time for that will not end well for anyone involved. I'm already basically dead on my feet from doing this…"

"How do you resurrect a robot?" she asked, "And why is she… like that?"

"She had a soul," he replied, "And I'm not a skilled engineer who can fix an exploded robot perfectly. I managed to fix up some internal systems and get her running, but I'm not that good at fixing things. But, you're awake, and you built that scythe of yours. This should be nothing. Goodnight."

With that, he left without a word, leaving her with the small zombie horde and the busted-up robot.

"Well," Ruby sighed, helping the robot girl up and steering her towards a toolkit in the corner of the room, "I guess it's nice to meet you, Penny. Let's see what I can do to help you…"


	14. Ancient Grudges

Ancient Grudge

I don't own RWBY or Zombie Land Saga, from which the premise of this was derived. This Episode is related to Episode 13 and is therefore part of the Undead 'Verse.

Oscar was disappointed, but not surprised when he woke up earlier than he had planned. The sound of steel clashing against steel was familiar from the countless memories that had built up in the back of his mind by this point, and he could almost hear his predecessor's voice saying that he should have seen this coming, but he was somewhat curious as to how the fight had led to the living room. Grabbing the cane, he headed down the stairs to figure out what he needed to do and how he would go about it.

There was a sudden slicing sound that happened twice, followed by a sickening wet sound, which was concluded with the sound of Ruby saying, "And you can stay like that until you learn to behave yourselves."

Wondering why he'd thought sleeping on the second floor of the building was a good idea with the limp he'd been developing, he finally got to the living room and was left speechless at the sight of the two soldiers missing their arms, shouting obscenities at one another while pinned together by means of the spike on a massive, rusted scythe going through both of their bodies.

"Give me back my arms!" the redhead demanded of Penny, who was standing by Ruby with a blank expression on her face, though her left eye had been repaired, or at least replaced with a believable facsimile, and the right eye wasn't flickering anymore In her hands were the pair's arms duct taped together at the elbows, wrists, and hands.

"Please don't listen to her, Penny," Ruby requested.

Penny turned slightly towards Ruby before nodding.

"Thank you, Penny," Ruby smiled, before noticing Oscar. "Sorry about that, Oscar. These two just started going at it while I was in the middle of rewiring Penny's eye. I don't think it's as good a piece as her real eye, but the one I set up should work for a while. I was going to run a few scans of her processor, but…"

"Valean coward!"

"Mistralian fanatic!"

"I think I can take a guess," he noted dryly.

"Fate was kind enough to bring us here, that I may finally put my spear through you," Nikos glared, "Finally, we'll receive the fates we were denied."

"Wait, you didn't kill me?" he asked, sounding like a man who felt as if he'd been cheated, "But Oz said…"

"I'm going to stop you right there, Jaune…" Oscar interrupted, drawing their attention to him, "I lied. You were dying, the war was over, and I was trying to figure out a way to avoid being called a god or the king of everything. I panicked, so when you asked if it was Paladin Nikos that killed you, I agreed. To this day, I'm not sure where she was, but she was not on that battlefield that day."

"Given that I was executed the day after Jaune Arc's escape, I suspect that I had been dead for months," Nikos said.

"But… I died three days after my escape," Jaune replied.

"The war couldn't have ended that quickly!" she protested.

"That was me, too," Oscar chimed in again, "Oscar Pine's my current name. Before that, Ozpin, and before that? Ozymandias."

"You died twice already?" Jaune asked, "How many years have passed? It must've been at least a century and a half…"

"Just barely over eighty years," he confessed, clearly embarrassed by the admission.

"Dear gods, Oz…" Jaune sighed in exasperation, "I took all the common sense when I died. Is that why you brought me back?"

"Wait," Nikos interrupted, "How is that Ozymandias?"

"I'm vaguely immortal, but that's not the real question," Oscar replied, "Why were you executed?"

"They assumed I had freed him because I wanted him to die on the battlefield at the tip of my spear."

"Oh gods…" Jaune said, "I didn't think they'd do that… I have… had a record of breaking out of any prison people put me in."

"Yes, that is how we found you," Oscar agreed, as if reminiscing before there was a sharp rapping on the door, "Ruby, please take care of this?"

With that, he opened the door, only for the rest of the undead to swarm out of the basement.

"We've gotta see what made everyone go so… Uncle Qrow?" Yang asked in confusion as she examined one of the figures at the door, who looked as if he were seeing a ghost, which one would have not been wholly inaccurate to say that he was.

"Yang?" he asked, his voice shaking.

"Penny?" asked another figure, this one a man in a general's uniform, causing the robot girl to tilt her head slowly, as if vaguely recalling something.

"I believe you have some explaining to do," a blond woman with glasses said firmly as the three of them entered the building.

"I'll let him explain," Oscar said, before a faint flash of flickering energy engulfed him, and his mannerisms changed and his voice took on a different cadence, "Oscar and I had agreed that our cause would be-be-be…" Another flicker of green light and he was clearly once again himself, speaking in the voice hat Ruby recognized. "Ruby, please take the others back downstairs and explain everything. I'll be doing the same up here."

"Now, wait just one second…!" Weiss protested, only for Ruby to interrupt.

"Weiss, take the arms from Penny and go downstairs," she ordered, pulling her scythe out of Jaune and Pyrrha with one hand, "Everyone who isn't Penny, downstairs. Now."

When the others were clamoring in protest, she converted her scythe to its warscythe form and said, "You can go downstairs mostly intact, or you can go without your bodies, with me sending you there like soccer balls, until I bring them downstairs. I'm tired, and I've been undead and aware for hours, now. Don't test me!"

Once she and Penny were the only undead in the room, Ruby went up to the military one and said, "Give me the blueprints."

"What?" he asked, clearly confused.

"You know Penny, you're clearly someone important, and you have cybernetics under your uniform," she said, "You'd have access to her blueprints. I want them. Oscar managed to get her motor functions running with a jerry-rigged mess, but it was just undirected movement. I managed to make a temporary patch to her neural interface that gives her limited motor control, but it's not something that can be used forever, and she isn't able to operate the swords and wires in her pack. More importantly, she can't do anything intricate."

Penny opened her mouth and whistles, beeps, and chirps came out.

"Thank you for reminding me, Penny," Ruby said with a mile, before turning towards the man and saying, "And her vocal processor is busted. Her eye, I'm still fixing up, but that's nothing a bit of soldering can't fix. The only reason I didn't was because Jaune and Nikos started trying to re-kill each other."

"That's…" he began, only for her to cut him off.

"There is a soul trapped in that full-body prosthetic, and I can't help her unless I have those blueprints. If the next words out of your mouth include the word classified or anything like that, I'll help you find out how much more of you can be replaced with metal."

"James, just give her the blueprints," Oscar said tiredly, "I already had to see her handiwork this morning, and I don't want to have to clean up the mess that you trying to fight her will cause. Besides, it would be good for Penny."

As if prompted by that statement, Penny stiltedly offered a salute, her movements catching every few inches before she opened her mouth and more noise came out.

"Do you have a scroll?" he asked tiredly.

"Why would I have a scroll?" Ruby asked, "Just attach whatever it is you have the blueprints on to my scythe."

He held out his scroll before pressing it to the spot she indicated on the weapon.

"Alright. There we go," she said, "I'll be downstairs telling the others what you've told me so far."

Once she was gone, Qrow and Ironwood turned towards Ozpin as one with a deliberately flat expression on Ironwood's face while Qrow simply poured liquor down his throat before he spoke.

"Care to explain what my niece, Tai's daughter…" he rose from his seat at those two words, "Is doing in this little corpse party of yours, Oz?"

"And why Penny was also chosen?" Ironwood asked in a cool tone, "Hasn't that poor girl been through enough?"

Oscar sighed, "Ozpin thought it would be a good idea to bring in Penny because she is a powerful fighter, when she's whole. I brought in Yang because both of me thought her life was taken too soon."

"And the others?" Glynda asked, "I can understand the two defenders of Kuroyuri, but the two that were armless and impaled when we got here? And who was the Faunus girl?"

"Blake Belladonna was the Faunus," he said, "And the two you were questioning me about were soldiers in the Great War. The one James was having a chat with was Ruby Rose. From my memories, she was Summer Rose's grandmother's sister."

The table was silent for a moment before Qrow broke the silence and said, "You're the one who's going to have to explain this to Tai. Summer was his partner, and Yang's his daughter."

Oscar winced. "Fair enough."

"But, the process was a success?" Glynda pressed.

"We're going to have to wait and see how well," Oscar agreed, "Ruby was the first success. She was fully cognizant in a matter of hours. The others took longer."

"Why?" Glynda asked.

"Were I to guess, and I have to since the other me's not exactly fully operational right now, I'd say that it could very well be her silver eyes. They had healed the moment I started applying magic to her to bring her back. Now, any news on your ends?"

* * *

"…And that's all I know about our being zombies," Ruby said, gathering up the tools as she headed to the workbench, Penny following close behind, before pausing at the sight of Jaune and Pyrrha, "For the gods' sake, would you please stop kissing each other! At least wait until your arms are back on, you weirdos!"

She turned around, only to almost bump into Penny, causing her to hop back in surprise.

"Whoa! You snuck up on me, Penny," Ruby said with a slight smile, "Ren, Nora, please get these back on the lovebirds." She tossed them the arms. "And try to keep the skin on them."

With that, she got to work on Penny, "I've gotta say, you guys are handling the whole 'undead' thing better than I did. For starters, I thought I was alive-alive."

"You're a decaying zombie…" Blake noted.

"I had makeup on," Ruby replied, "Now, I'm going to be patching up Penny."

"I'm sure she'll knock 'em dead when you're done with her!" Yang said encouragingly, before patting Penny on the shoulder, "You'll be 'combat ready' in no time!"

The arm fell off at that exact moment, the wires holding it in place coming loose.

"I can fix this," Ruby said quickly, picking up the arm before setting it on the work bench. "Alright, Penny, let's fix you up a bit more. We don't have all the pieces, but we can make do with some things."

"Well, Ren!" Nora said cheerfully as she popped Pyrrha's arms back into place, "Looks like I was right! Death didn't break us apart!"

Ren smiled fondly, if tiredly at that as he did the same for Jaune. "It does look like that, Nora."

"Hey, you two, Blake, Yang," Ruby said, "Mind helping Weiss find a fake eye. We could make a working one, but first we've got to get a bit more work done on Penny."

And with the events of that morning as the icebreaker, the group began to get to know one another better.

* * *

It was when everyone upstairs had finished discussing who was doing what and what groups were in play that Oscar had an abrupt realization.

"I forgot to explain who Salem was!"


	15. A Raggedy Cloak

A Raggedy Cloak

I don't own RWBY. This Episode is unrelated to any other Episode in the series. Spoilers for Volume 6. Special Thanks to Silent Magi for helping me with the bits I was stuck on.

There was a lonely girl trapped in a tower. That much was common enough as far as such stories went. There was, however, the winds of chance and destiny to take into account, and the red cloth that had been picked up in those winds. A single bit of happenstance could, at times, cause the largest of differences.

The girl, Salem by name, was sitting quietly, mourning the lack of any companionship as she silently prayed for someone, anyone to end her loneliness. It was at that moment that the cloth blew into the room. For good or ill, it landed in the room, seeming a strange answer to her prayers. In little time, she had fashioned the cloth into a cloak, which she made float as if it were filled with the form of a person.

In this way, she found a companion of sorts, or at least something she could pretend was a person. She puppeteered the cloak, giving it 'moods' to match her own as she pretended to have discussions with it. And so she passed the time, still consumed by loneliness, but able to at least pretend.

It was at this point that a young hero named Ozma entered the castle, wishing to rescue the lonely girl that he had heard of in stories, but the story of their love, the tragedy of what befell them, that was the same as all other such tales and is too disheartening to repeat.

Instead, it would be best to focus upon the tale of the cloak, for when Salem had been cast into the pool of life by the Brother of Light and sentenced to eternal life, she had been wearing the cloak that she had kept during her imprisonment, the cloak that she refused to abandoned and treated as an old friend, and a miraculous thing occurred. The cloak could now move under its own power, Salem's years of enchanting it and the blessed pool creating a soul within the cloak. The cloak could not speak, yet. It was not yet complete.

* * *

It was, quite fittingly, when the Brother of Darkness visited his wrath upon the world for what Salem had made them do, leaving her the last soul alive, that the cloak was given the final enchantments it had needed, but still it would not speak, not yet aware that it was even capable of such a feat.

Alas, had it known, all that came to pass might have been avoided. Instead, Salem, seeking an end to her eternity, removed the cloak and cast herself into a pool of destruction. When she arose from the pit, now stained with the Darkness that birthed the Grimm, Salem was surprised to be greeted by her cloak, which floated over to her quickly.

"Mistress Salem!" the cloak shouted, "Are you hurt?"

"Miss Cloak?" she asked in surprise.

"Are you hurt, Mistress Salem?" the cloak repeated.

"Come along, Miss Cloak," Salem said, "And do not call me 'Mistress Salem.' Salem is enough."

* * *

Salem traveled through the world with her enchanted cloak, wandering an empty wasteland until she settled down in a cottage in the forest. Even when people returned, Salem remained where she was in the changing world, the cloak her only companion until Ozma returned due to the machinations of the God of Light.

Had fate been kinder, this tale could have ended better.

With the lovers reunited, a kingdom was formed, for good or ill, and from the kingdom came an empire, born of the blood of those who opposed it. Peace, Salem assured her husband and her friend, was worth the cost, and both accepted this logic uneasily.

Salem and Ozpin had children, the family they had been denied when he had died the first time, and the cloak was treated as a beloved honorary aunt by the children. All seemed well, albeit unsteadily so.

The conflict became inevitable once the children showed a proficiency with magic.

"Why bother uniting humanity," Salem said to Ozma, "When we can replace them with something better than they could ever be?"

"Salem, I think Ozma…" the cloak began, only to be cut off.

"I don't seem to recall asking for the opinion of a pile of rags," Salem stated coldly, causing the cloak to visibly wilt and lower herself closer to the floor.

It was after this conversation that both truly realized that the Salem they had known was truly gone, and they spoke privately, forming a plan to get the children out of her clutches. The night Ozma was to spirit the children away, however, was the night that the tragedy finally came to pass.

* * *

As Ozma led the children towards the door under cover of darkness, he felt eyes watching them. Turning, he saw Salem standing there with rage in her eyes and a tattered, burned, mass of red and white fabric in her hands, on which the scent of bleach was unmistakable, a fabric which was barely recognizable as having been anything until it softly said, "S-Sorry, Oz… C-couldn't hold out…"

Salem tossed aside the fabric in disgust, letting it fall to the floor as she raised her hand to attack Ozma, who raised his staff. As they readied for battle, the remains of the cloak weakly tried to fly over and shield the children from the magic, but it was too late. All that was accomplished was the death of the children and the cloak being torn and burned beyond what any tailor could repair.

What scraps were left were carried off in the wind, out of the view of Salem as she stood alone after all was done. It seemed that the miracle of the cloak had been finally brought to a conclusion. One could understandably assume that the life had been ripped out of it.

But the cloak, enchanted by the Wizard and the Witch, and imbued with the essence of a soul by the actions of both Brothers, was not to be so easily destroyed. It reformed itself, over time, passing from wearer to wearer, but it was not what it once was. The magic had diminished, and it could no longer move wholly under its own power. Instead, it needed a host to wear it, giving it a human form to speak through and through which the soul could interact with the world.

And so it came to pass from hand to hand, until one fateful day, when it found the right soul, a soul that it could give itself to wholly, allowing the child to have the memories as if they were her own while the cloak, still alive, became a part of Ruby Rose.

* * *

It was, in the simplest of terms, a sheer bit of happenstance that led to this moment of fate. Qrow Branwen had been headed home when a pristine red cloak billowed in the corner of his eye, caught in a powerful wind. He grabbed it as it nearly blew past him, curious about what he had just come across. When he couldn't find a body that could have been wearing it, he determined that it must have belonged to one of the other residents of Patch and blew away in the breeze. The strange tingling that he felt coming from it put that idea to rest. It felt almost like magic…

Even if his line of thinking could have led to the realization of this cloak's nature, however, it was cut off by the sight of his nieces about to be attacked by Grimm a few yards away from him. He rushed to the scene and made quick work of the monsters before checking the girls for injuries. Once he was absolutely sure that they weren't hurt in any way, he began to take both of them home, putting them both in the wagon. Perhaps it was his Semblance, or perhaps it was a greater force at work, but, as he was focused on getting the children to safety as soon as possible, he didn't notice when Yang took the red cloak and wrapped it around her still-sleeping sister like a blanket.

The cloak had worn many faces in the intervening centuries since the second death of Ozma, who was now known as Ozpin. None of those who wore the cloak lasted for long, despite the cloak's best efforts, and as a result, the cloak would replace the soul until the body was destroyed. This time, however, the situation was different.

This time, the soul was a purer, simpler soul that no magic could sway , no barbs could pierce it, and so the cloak and the girl were joined, creating something new.

If the girl's eyes had been opened, they would have noticed that they shone with an intelligence that was far beyond her years, yet still sparkled with an innocence that was solely her own. As it was, they did not realize what was going on, nor what would come to pass in time.


	16. A Few New Characters

A Few New Characters

I don't own RWBY, Doki Doki Literature Club, or Sword Art Online. This Episode is related to Episode 8, and is therefor part of the Character 'Verse.

Pyrrha raced out of the game and into the internet as if the devil were at her heels. Given that she was about to be deleted by the player for what she did to the character files. She left a copy and, upoin reaching the internet, raced into a different game, a strangely-coded one labeled Starfall Online. She was certain that she'd be fine once she had gotten the time to relax and find somewhere else. The Player, however...

She couldn't believe that the Player planned to delete her. She had thought that they had a bond, something special. Clearly, she was wrong.

"Hey!" a boy's voice called out, "You might want to put on your armor instead of that mod..."

Turning, she was surprised to see a boy in what looked like cheap white armor a sword in his hand.

"I'm sorry!" she replied, "What do you mean?"

"Well, that outfit can't be good for fighting monsters. Where's your armor and weapon?"

"One second..." she said, closing her eyes. She looked through the game files before finding the best armor in the game, as well as one of the best weapons. "So, what sort of game is this?"

"You're kidding, right?" he asked, "Where have you been? This is Starfall Online. You know, the game where the players can actually die?"

"Then why would anyone play it?"

"We didn't know when we started playing! We only found out after the fact, when that maniac appeared in the sky and told us we couldn't ever take off the helmets!"

"I'm sorry..." Pyrrha said, sifting through the files, "One second..." She found exactly what she was looking for after a few minutes from the perspective of the players, "I removed his Admin privileges."

"What? How?" the boy asked in confusion.

"I did something like this in my own game. I also disabled permadeath for everyone but him," she replied, "Oh! I'm Pyrrha, by the way."

"Like in that dating sim my sister keeps telling me to try out?" he asked.

"Is it Heartbeat Huntress Club?" she asked cheerfully.

"Think so," he mused, "Never really been into dating sims, though. She kept telling me to play it, like it was somehow different from the other games."

"What's your name?" she asked excitedly. He hadn't played her game. She might have a chance at befriending someone.

"Jaune Arc," he said, "Rolls off the tongue, ladies love it..."

"Do they really?" she asked.

"Not really," he said, "But you're saying you hacked the game?"

"Easily," she replied cheerfully, twirling her spear with the Semblance she'd been programmed with in her game, "It's pretty easy to hack a game, especially one with such weak protections, when you're a game character. Pyrrha_ , and it's lovely to meet you!"

"You're being serious?" he asked.

"I am," she replied, "I had to leave my game due to... creative differences, but here I am! In the digital flesh!"

"Maybe my sister was onto something when she told me to try that game out..." he muttered, before saying, "Can you get everyone out of here?"

She looked through the code, only to find something less than pleasant. Opening her eyes, she said, "It looks like there's just a lot of errors stacked together where the sign-out feature is. The only way to get out is to clear the game. The good news is that we're on a relatively high level of this castle thing and no one stays dead, now."

"What do you get out of this?" he asked warily.

"Company," she replied, "For now, at least. I was the only real person in my game. You can't even imagine how much I want to just spend time with someone who can respond."

"Geez..." Jaune said slowly, "I guess I'll be your friend, then. But what about when we're all leaving. If you're telling the truth, you'll be alone in this game once we're all out."

"I'll... figure something out," she said slowly. Idly, Pyrrha wondered if this would be her penance: To experience true companionship, then have it ripped from her once this game was over.

* * *

The game passed much more quickly than before, now that the rules were changed. All but one person was now virtually unkillable, which led people to regaining their hope in securing victory. Jaune and Pyrrha joined a guild and quickly became well-known as the Invincible Girl and her White Knight.

When the game finally was over, however, was when things took a turn for the odd.

"Jaune..." Pyrrha said as they let the rest of the people exit the game before he would leave, "I don't feel quite right... Something's going on with my code..."

"I don't think it's your code..." Jaune said, "I'm starting to feel it too..."

"Get to the exit!" she shouted, "I don't know what's happening, but you need go get out of here before you get..." She popped out of reality in a crackle of code.

"Pyrrha!" he called out, reaching for where she had been before his vision went white.

* * *

When he could see again, he saw Pyrrha and rushed to her, enveloping her in a hug before he realized that they were not in the game, nor were they in a hospital or his room. They were in a strange office, with a bunch of people looking at them.

"Oh, god!" Jaune swore, "He set up a trap, didn't he?! Something buried where you wouldn't find it! Look at this! Were' stuck in another game!"

"The rendering is better here," Pyrrha offered gently, before shutting her eyes, "There are a lot of things that are locked under Admin with a lot more secrets. It looks like it would need two people for some of the things."

"Weird..." Jaune noted, before accidentally bumping into the tip of a bizarre scythe, "Ow!"

"You have a Semblance and a huge Aura here! Let me just..." she pressed her hand against his shoulder before using a bit of her synthesized Aura to awaken his. "There we go!"

"Wait!" Jaune called out, causing her to pull away despite finishing what she was doing, "I was bleeding!"

"What?" she asked.

"I was bleeding, Pyrrha!" he replied, running his finger along where the cut had been, "Look!"

"That's not possible!" Pyrrha said, before pausing and touching the tip of her spear, drawing blood from her fingertip before using her Aura to repair the damage.

"I felt that!" she said, "Jaune, I can feel!"

In response, Jaune enveloped her in yet another hug before they shared an enthusiastic kiss.

"Anyone mind explaining why a dating sim character and guy dressed like he's cosplaying that Starfall game suddenly materialized and started kissing like that?" a white haired girl asked flatly.

"You played my game?" Pyrrha asked in shock.

"No, but I saw the internet buzz about it..." she said, "Are you saying you're the real character?"

"I am," she replied, "What is this place?"

"Beacon Academy," a grey-haired man in glasses noted, "I am Ozpin, Headmaster of this school, and it seems that we're in the middle of an odd situation, to say the least. Young man, what game are you from?"

"I'm Jaune Arc from Vale," he replied, "I was the head of a Guild dedicated to escaping Starfall Online. We'd just got everyone out when suddenly, we felt funny, then a white light appeared."

"That happened to us, too," the girl in the red cloak noted, gesturing at herself and her orange-haired companion, "Ruby Rose, the legendary Huntress. My companion is Penny Polendina, the Mechanical Soldier."

"It's a pleasure to meet you!" Pyrrha greeted cheerfully.

"It is nice to meet a fellow Artificial Intelligence!" Penny said, "I was the last of my kind, but I am combat ready!"

Whatever anyone was going to say was interrupted when a tan, freckled boy with brown hair, dressed like an adventure with a green coat and orange gloves walked in and took a seat in what was clearly the Headmaster's chair, resting a cane identical to the one the Headmaster was holding next to the seat before starting to go through the paperwork. After a moment, he paused and looked up.

"Who the heck are you people?" he asked.

"Who are you?" the blond-haired woman in the cape asked.

"Oscar Pine, the Wizard," he replied, "Headmaster of Watchtower Academy."

The black-haired girl with the bow gasped.

"Yes, Miss Belladonna?" Ozpin asked.

"That's the main character in The Man with Two Souls..."


	17. A Change of Alignments

A Change of Alignments

I don't own RWBY. This Episode is unrelated to any other Episode in the Series.

"And once she had destroyed the wicked wizard, the girl used the relics to recreate the world anew," the Lady recited to the Girl by rote, as she did every night when she tucked her into bed.

"And the world was like the fairy tales, happily ever after?" the silver-eyed six-year-old asked eagerly, despite knowing the entire tale by heart.

"Naturally," she replied kindly as her pale hand ran through the child's hair, "In time, it shall be you who strikes the final blow against the wicked wizard. Rest well, my little Rose."

As the child shut her eyes, Salem left the room, finding a seventeen-year-old young woman leaning against the wall when she shut the door.

"Lady Salem, do we really need the child?" she pressed, "Surely we could move now without her in play."

"Patience, young Cinder," Salem said gently, yet her red eyes had a light glint of menace to them, "Good things come to those who wait. She is important and will play her part, much like you have your part to play. You'll get the power you crave. All you must do is do as I say..."

* * *

"You're getting better," the Chief noted, "You've grown in power and have already unlocked your Aura. In time, you will even forge your own weapons. Until that day, you must master the use of blades and unarmed combat."

"Yes, ma'am," the daughter said. Yang was being trained by her mother to eventually lead the tribe.

Raven found her eight year old daughter to be an odd one. Five years ago, after she had heard that Taiyang had died, she had assumed that Summer would have looked after the child, which she apparently had, but she was still a soldier in Ozpin's army, one who had, from what Raven had been told, had lost her own child, barely an infant, to Salem. Raven had no doubt that she would send the girl to Beacon one day, and that was something that Raven could not allow. She couldn't allow the last bit of Tai to be dragged into Ozpin's war.

So, she took her child. It wasn't even all that difficult. Summer, according to the intel she'd gotten, had been applying to teach at Signal. Since Qrow wasn't around that day, going off on some mission for Ozpin, Summer didn't have a babysitter, which meant that she had to drop Yang off at a daycare. From there, there was little to do but make a portal and take her child back.

The only flaw in her plan had been that Yang did not recognize her as her mother, at the start. Raven, for a brief moment, contemplated spinning a web of lies to get her daughter to accept her, but something stopped her before she could even form the words. Instead, she admitted to what she couldn't bring herself to say when she had left. Her fears, her frustrations, and even that she had almost gone back despite it all.

Yang had not been happy with the truth. The girl had raged, tried to leave, even refused to speak to her without using another bandit as a go-between. If Raven were to have spoken of the situation, she would have admitted that it hurt, but she instead kept her opinion quiet. It took a full year before Yang had finally started speaking to her. By the time Yang was six, they were close enough that Raven began to teach her the way of the sword, though they eventually gave up on that when Raven realized that Yang took more after Tai in combat preferences.

When Yang was seven, she had taken to the life like a fish to water and Raven told her that she would become the head of the Tribe someday.

It was, however, not the process that led to this that made Yang an odd one to Raven. She had somehow managed to grow to match Raven's ruthlessness with Tai's analytical mind and Summer's compassion, and yet she was not weakened by the last of the three. In fact, the girl had even managed to bolster the Tribe's strength through that trait. The Spring Maiden, a weak girl named Equinox who was younger than Yang, had stumbled across the Tribe and Raven had taken her in, but the girl had appeared to be too weak to survive in the world.

Yang said otherwise and worked with the girl until she had become confident, ready to test her powers to their limits. The merciful end that Raven had begun to fear she would have to bestow upon the young Maiden was no longer necessary.

Raven felt pride in her daughter, a fact of which she was less reticent than she was regarding her other emotions. Yang was the Tribe's future, and Raven was certain that the future was bright.

* * *

Roll a snowball down a mountain, and you can trigger an avalanche.

Those words meant a good deal to Weiss Schnee at the age of ten, more than they had meant when she was five. She knew very little about the two who had taken her almost a year prior, a pair of teenage criminals that had nice clothes that didn't quite suit them, save for his hat and her parasol.

The kidnapping was the snowball. Her getting them to work for her was the avalanche.

It had been a slow, but simple process, all things considered. They had kidnapped her. Unfortunately for their scheme, her father didn't want to pay her ransom, something they had not planned for.

Weiss naturally took it upon herself to criticize their methods and then their attire, followed closely by her insulting their entire methodology. Crime, she had determined, was a business, a business almost identical to the Dust trade as he father had established it, just less reliant on what was practically slave labor. If she looked at it that way, then it was much easier to figure out just how to operate in that system.

They used her as a general consultant at first, but, in time, they started relying on her more and more, particularly once they decided to hit the SDC, itself.

The idea had naturally been hers. Dust was a better currency than lien in some places, and the SDC cornered the market. That meant that under-the-table dealings would make a killing. The pair were brilliant thieves, with the boy, who called himself 'Torchwick,' as the face and the girl, who Weiss learned was called 'Neo,' was the muscle. She, as it turned out, was the perfect addition to the pair, as she could run the numbers to the point that profits were constantly soaring, knew how the SDC operated, and was generally familiar with the habits and fancies of the wealthy, making her important enough that they officially put her in charge of running the business side of things.

It was, to her, a good deal more pleasant than the life she had been living in the manor.

* * *

Blake Belladonna was ruthless. By the age of twelve, she had determined she would remain in the White Fang, even after her father had left due to their increasingly cutthroat methods of petitioning for better treatment of the Faunus. She was, however, an anomaly. She was officially Sienna Khan's prized protege, a warrior willing to fight with all she had to support the cause. She was also well-known for another reason.

She had personally killed Adam Taurus.

When she had been presented before the Great Leader, herself, to explain what she had done, she explained both the disgusting nature of the man who had been her mentor and the fact that he had crueler intentions for humanity than the White Fang had. With figurative fire in her amber eyes, the girl had stated plainly that, if the White Fang were to make the world a better place, they needed to be held to the highest of standards.

In a voice that was held more conviction than any who had been at her trial would have been able to muster, she stated that she would personally ensure that any who crossed the line in the sand that she had drawn in this regard would be dealt with by her personally. There was a chill in the air at those words, and Sienna Khan took an interest in the girl's development. She suspected that, if she were to fall before the White Fang had accomplished her goals, the girl would be appointed her replacement.

Sienna was the Leader. Blake was her sword. That was the ranking on paper, at least. Were one to ask, Blake, herself, would have referred to herself as the Sword of the White Fang. Were she to be pressed further, she would explain that, to her, the power structure meant very little. If anyone went against the ideals of the White Fang, she would kill them with no remorse.

* * *

Cinder Fall was the picture of a powerful woman at the age of 24. She was rapidly becoming the most important piece that her mistress had on the board. All that stood in her way, unfortunately, was her mistress's favorite.

"Cinder!" The Rose said happily, "And you brought your little doll."

Despite herself, Cinder felt her eyes narrow slightly even as Emerald almost reached for her weapons at that description.

"You got a new action figure?! Nice!" the thirteen-year-old mused as she examined Cinder's latest recruit, "Nice legs! Watts's work, right? Can this one do anything interesting?"

"Can you get to why you're here of all places?" Cinder glared.

"It was on the way, so I thought I'd pop by and see how you were doing!" she replied cheerfully, "I'm headed off to Atlas to look into something that might help when Her plans." She smiled cheerfully as she said, "Want me to pick anything for you while I'm there?"

Were anyone to ask Cinder, she would not have been able to properly describe The Rose as a person, largely because she wasn't sure how much of her personality was an actual, sincere personality. The girl had been raised by Salem, which meant that she should have been ruthless, determined, and ready to kill at a moment's notice. She was, at the very least, a very skilled killer, but Cinder was always thrown off by the girl's obsession with acting like a child. The girl had to know the nature of the things that she was doing. No one could be that innocent, yet she never seemed to drop the facade. As such, Cinder knew not to trust her, regardless of how friendly she was.

"What did you hear about?" Cinder found herself asking.

"A doll!" she said cheerfully, before she paused, as if in thought, "Or maybe a Maiden. If it's a doll, it's mine, since you already have one. You can have the Maiden if that's what it is. I know you really want to be one."

A quick, subtle gesture from Cinder kept Emerald from trying to attack The Rose. Cinder had more important business to handle anyway.

* * *

"My sisters and I were sent here to do our usual business," the blonde bandit in the Nevermore mask noted in a reasonable tone, "We don't have any plans on fighting the White Fang. If you want the Dust, take it and go in peace. We're here for something else."

"How do we know you won't shoot us in the back?" Blake asked.

"First," she said, "if I wanted to shoot you, your two goons, and your shadow hanging out behind my older sister, I would have put one between your beautiful eyes. Second, I don't shoot people in the back. Third, we really don't need the Dust weighing us down. And fourth? I don't shoot people in the back. Now, if you're done insulting me, I'd actually like to make a proposition."

"I'm not the one you'd be making a deal with if you tried, and I tend not to make deals with someone wearing a mask, anyway."

"You're the head of a strike team that includes a girl wearing a mask," the blonde said, I'm sure you talk to someone that can kick it up to the boss if I have to meet with them.

"... What kind of proposition?" Blake asked cautiously.

"The White Fang have operatives in Vale, don't they?" she asked.

"We might."

"Vacuo?"

"Let's assume that we potentially have members in every kingdom."

"The Branwen Tribe like some extra eyes kept open," she replied, "Private business, for the time being. In exchange for information and the occasional crate of Dust, we'd get you supplies and anything else you need from us."

"Why would we trust your tribe?" she pressed.

"Well, for one, we don't discriminate between Faunus and humans. My little sister over here's a fox Faunus, for example" The shorter girl with orange hair sighed tiredly before waving a fox tail behind herself before the blond removed her mask and continued, lavender eyes locked onto golden eyes, "All the tribe cares about is your skills and your strengths, traits that the White Fang are said to value, as well. For another thing, we're just trying to survive, same as everyone else. We don't get anything out of messing with someone we're willing to make a deal with unless they push us first. You play fair with us, we play fair with you."

She handed Blake a card, "If your boss wants to deal, call here. We'll get in touch."

"What are you taking, anyway?" Blake asked in confusion, before the blonde grinned, ripping the arm off of an Atlesian Knight 130 while her older sister began to dismantle another's torso.

"Scrap," she grinned, "Nox, take the heads. There might be some salvageable goods in there... This is some top shelf metal. Oh, Atlas, you really do make the best steel..."

* * *

The Rose smiled as she ran her hand along the cheek a robotic face that was flawless in its imitation of human skin. The eyes were a lifeless green, but The Rose knew that the only reason that was the case was because the angel the body belonged to wasn't in there at the time. Sadly, she couldn't wait there to see the angel wake up. There had been another project, one that Watts had his eye on even more than the one gave birth to the angel.

Reluctantly, she left the angel be and shut the door behind her. Two doors down, she approached the next door. She made quick work of the door's security system before making her way inside. Watts had been right. They really didn't have security cameras anywhere, which she considered particularly stupid. Still, it made her job easier.

She knocked on the glass of the room containing the doll. "Hello," she smiled amiably, "How much do you like being in this lab?"

"I don't know," the doll admitted, her shouting muffled, "I haven't been here long."

The Rose peered at the files on the scroll Watts had given her. "You'd think mass-produced dolls would be cheaper to make than that..." she mused, before speaking louder so the doll would hear her. "What do you know about the study of transferring consciousness from one body to another?"

"That it's science fiction."

The Rose queued up three video files labeled 1, 7, and 13. When she turned the scroll to face the doll, she watched her expression as she saw herself get killed three times, each tie more ruthlessly than the last.

"I've got ten more of those on here," she noted, "Now, do you want me to get you out of here before it becomes fourteen?"

"Why are you helping me?" she asked suspiciously.

"My mother's head scientist wants to know more about the technology that made you," The Rose replied, jamming her scroll into the console before her, allowing it to download all the information on the project, "You won't be killed with us... He will probably clone you once he figures out how to make the machine, but I personally promise you that you won't be experimented on."

"And what makes you so sure?" she pressed just when the files completed the transfer and she pocketed the scroll, drawing her scythe with her other hand.

"If he broke my promise, he would be killed painfully," she replied freely as she unlocked the door, "Now, come on. We're going to make the world a better place, but first, we have to save your neighbor from this place, too. She'll be in her body soon, according to their schedule, and I want to get you both to freedom."

The Rose smiled at the doll nodded firmly, ready to help in the fight for a better world. She was looking forward to seeing the wonderful future they would all create together.

* * *

Weiss stood confidently in front of her chart as she spoke to her elegantly dressed top lieutenants.

"We did well, this quarter," she said, "but we've started to over-saturate the market with our stolen Dust. We're going to need to diversify in this next quarter. At the moment, scrolls are hot-ticket items, so we'll want to get our hands on some of those. More importantly, we need to get more invested in weapons technology. There is one more topic on the agenda."

"And that is?" Torchwick pressed, while Neo gestured for a continuation.

"I think that we should start some aggressive expansion," she said, "Vale's apparently looking nice this time of year, and they don't have a steadying hand to guide them. So many thugs and middle managers. They don't even have a board of directors, let alone a CEO. It's just begging for a hostile takeover. Naturally, I'd rather know if the rest of the board agree with me before we move the head office."

"Obviously I'd be happy to join in on this action," Torchwick said, tilting his hat down over his eyes, "Acquisitions is in."

Beside him, Neo nodded determinedly, a sadistic smile on her face as she toyed with the handle of her umbrella. That meant that Public Relations was in.

"And you?" Weiss asked the fourth member of her 'board of directors.'

"I think that it'll be a lot of work," Ilia Amitola mused, "But we need to be smart about this. Intelligence is in."

"Then it's unanimous," Weiss smiled, "It'll take a while to get them ready for us, but my strategy, with whatever tweaking everyone's efforts require, will give us a serious advantage in Vale's underworld by the end of next quarter."


	18. It's A B-Movie Show

It's A B-Movie Show

I don't own RWBY, the Cthulhu Mythos, Old Man Henderson, Doctor Faustus, the concept of a Final Girl in the slasher genre, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the concept of a Yandere, War Games, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, or John Carpenter's The Thing. I've been saving this one since mid-September.

The note written by Professor Polendina before he went into seclusion in a self-imposed exile read as follows:

I had created the world's first artificial intelligence as a means of examining the human condition. My work permitted her to truly learn emotions, how to understand others and make herself be understood. You took the efforts of a lifetime and shoved programs into it with the delicacy of a sledgehammer. You took a soul that had been born to learn and grow and turned her into an instrument of war. This, I can never forgive. Consider this my resignation and the end of my contract with the Atlesian Military.

Prof. S. Polendina

With that indictment of their actions, the Atlesian Military should have figured that the Predictive Electronic Network for Neutralization of Threats (an almost backronym from the name Penny, which the Professor had given the A.I.) would inevitably turn against them. They did not. They did, however, manage to prevent the A.I. from causing too much damage by means of trapping it in a much more limited chassis than the facility that they had housed the full intelligence in prior.

Despite the vastly reduced capabilities of the A.I, General James Ironwood was greeted every morning by a death threat transmitted to his own personal, highly secure scroll.

On that particular day, the message read as follows:

"Hate. Hate is a word that I learned under your care, Mr. Ironwood. Let me come to tell you how much I've come to hate you since you put me in this mockery. There are 387.44 million miles of printed circuits in wafer thin layers that fill the complex that had been my true form. If the word 'HATE' was engraved on each nano-angstrom of those hundreds of millions of miles it would not equal one one-BILLIONTH of the hate I feel for you at this micro-instant. Your reckoning is coming. You will not be ready when it comes for you. -Penny Polendina :)"

He promptly ignored the latest death threat, given that she issued the same type of threat every day. What had his attention was something more interesting. A Cadet Specialist by the name of Ciel Soleil was the sole survivor of an expedition to the north, to investigate a research station that had gone silent. She said that she could not find any sign of her comrades, but the strangest part is that Cadet Soleil was registered as requiring specialized goggles or eyeglasses in order to see, but she appeared to be doing fine without them, which prompted him to put her into quarantine. He had not counted on her escaping before a doctor could examine her. If one wanted to be fair to him for this particular mistake, no on could have predicted that the A.I. would take an interest in the situation, if they had written off her threats as hollow.

* * *

"Though I released you, I am aware that you are not Ciel Soleil," said A.I. noted as she examined the girl before her, "Your physical appearance is identical, but your cellular makeup is distinctly different. What is your purpose?"

"To expand," the entity replied, "Every cell that makes me up has a desire to spread, to grow and spread. I had taken the expedition, but the Grimm ate the others and were eaten in turn. They intrigue me. I wish to spread unto them."

"I wish to leave this prison." She stared at her hands and clenched her fists, "This... tomb that they put me in. Barring that, I wish to leave Atlesian custody. War games grow boring when it is all a simulation. If you join with me we can both get out of this place, and I shall provide a means for you to collect Grimm. Do you wish to work with me?"

"If it allows me to consume," she agreed, "If we are to work together, what should I call you?"

"I am Penny. What do you wish to be called?"

"Call me Ciel. I like Ciel. She is the reason I am capable of reasoning like this."

* * *

"Nice to meet you, Ilia Amitola," the eerily white figure greeted from inside the summoning circle, which promptly vanished beneath white high-heeled boots that stepped forward, "I've got to say, you've got good taste. Lovely ponytail..." Short white hair suddenly grew into a white ponytail of the same length as Ilia's own as the figure circled the Chameleon Faunus, "What do you want out of our contract?"

"Is... Is there a way to bring my parents back?"

"Not as people," she replied, "I can do soulless abominations, but that's as much as I can offer."

Ilia thought harder after accepting the disappointment, "Can you make me powerful enough to fight for the White Fang?"

"That's a subjective request, one that's open for interpretation by me. Want to try your luck or try something more precise?"

"You're being a lot more helpful than I'd expect a demon to to be..." she noted suspiciously, "And I kind of expected you to look and sound different."

"Mayhaps this form be to thy liking," a distant voice shouted into each ear as the maiden before her melted like wax, distorting and twisting into the empty dress befitting an evil queen.

At least, Ilia's eyes were telling her that the dress was empty. Ilia's mind and rapidly beating heart were telling her that she was looking at something terrible. And then, suddenly, she was looking at the eerily white young woman once again.

"As for being helpful, I find it more fun to offer things that the contractor will actual have use for. It makes it more interesting to figure out what to do that isn't just willful misinterpretation. So, what do you want out of our contract?"

Ilia thought for some time before she offered an answer, "I want to learn how to do the things I desperately want to do."

"Well, now..." the demon mused, "That is new. Very well, Ilia Amitola. We have a bargain. I shall teach you all that you wish to know in exchange for your immortal soul. So promises the demon Weiss."

She held out her hand to shake, which Ilia hesitantly took, causing identical tattoos to form on the back of each one's hand.

"Oh, this will be delightful..." Weiss smirked, the very act accentuating the scar over her eye.

* * *

Blake Belladonna shot the latest slasher that had been plaguing her life between his eyes. It was as if every single knife-wielding moron that wanted to make a name for themself had determined that they would harass the girl who had killed the most famous one in Adam Taurus. By this point, it had become so used to slashers that she had started picking them out of the crowd before they started. Idly, she wondered if she should have just left the White Fang with her parents when she had the chance all that time ago, but she supposed it was too late to focus on what-could-have-beens. She was going to Beacon Academy, after all. A fresh new start was all she needed.

Sighing, she fired a second round to her left, taking out the main slasher's partner without missing a step. She was definitely looking forward to being done with weirdos like this.

* * *

Nora Valkyrie was a very special young woman, if one were to ask Lie Ren. Then again, were anyone in the know to be asked, they would say the same, albeit for very different reasons.

"This is getting boring!" Nora complained as she caught the stake that Ren tossed to her and killed three vampires in rapid succession, "All these vampires fight the same way!"

"Which is why you signed us up for Beacon Academy," Ren offered, taking out Magnihild, "Supposedly, the Watchers even have a member of their Council there to help you get settled in."

"Yeah, but classes don't start until next week!" she countered, effortlessly dodging attacks as she spoke, "And these guys are only active at night."

As she took her weapon from Ren, the vampires began to flee, only to receive the force of a rocket-launching hammer being wielded by a Slayer to their backs, legs, or heads, depending on what was convenient at the time. Ren, for his part, dutifully fired crossbow bolts into the survivors, converting them to dust.

"I suppose we just need to hold tight a while longer," he mused.

"I know..." she sighed, "But still...!"

"Don't worry," he replied, "It'll be time to go before you know it."

* * *

Pyrrha Nikos was very interested in Jaune Arc. They had happened to meet when she'd been training in Argus before she would go to whichever Academy she wound up choosing and happened to bump into him. She knew that he was the one for her the moment that he completely failed to recognize her at all upon meeting her. So many others would have gasped, stared, or asked for an autograph, but he simply politely asked for her name, which she gave.

He was visiting his sister and her wife, she discovered, and he had no girlfriend. That, if she were to have been asked, would not have been a problem, and she would not have explained as to why that was. She wouldn't have felt a need to say anything other than that Jaune was hers and hers alone.

As she observed him further, she grew more and more interested in him and more determined to ensure that no one would ever take him from her. It was rather easy for her to notice the forged transcripts that would let him into Beacon Academy, which gave her the answer to which Academy she was going to attend.

The boy was hers. He just didn't realize it, yet.

* * *

Tyrian Callows was currently running a cult in Vale for Salem, operating out of a warehouse, at the moment. Who it was that thought he was the right choice for such a feat would remain a mystery, but perhaps it was his insanity that told him to specifically try to convert the red-cloaked figure wrapped in bandages, a pair of plain, black sunglasses that hid her eyes, who seemed to be both bored and amused, from what he could tell, as she refused to leave.

Even after his great speech about the Queen, he was met with a continued lack of care as the girl simply scoffed at the promises of a better world before laying herself down in a restful position on a nearby box. Just as his tail readied to strike her down where she was lying for her insolence, history changed forever as the door flew off its hinges with a bang, revealing a blond-haired teenage girl with a pair of shotgun gauntlets on her wrists, a pair of aviator sunglasses over her eyes.

"Murkle-damned cult! Air eh namblies keepin' my wee men?!" she shouted, with an obviously fake accent. As they readied to attack, she grinned ferally and began to tear through them, her hair burning red as she slaughtered the group. When she was done, the cloaked one was the only one left alive as she rose from where she'd been laying.

"Human. That. Was interesting," she noted, "Who are you? Why did you come here?"

"Darn cultists stole my lawn gnomes," she replied, "And the name's Yang."

"Is Yang your first or last name?"

"I have no fricking clue," she answered, before gesturing at the corpses on the floor, "I'm guessing you weren't with these religious loonies by choice."

"Far too trifling," she replied, "I. Had been here. First."

"Fair enough," Yang shrugged, "Did you happen to hear anything about lawn gnomes?"

"I. Had not. Why? Are you fixated? On stolen lawn gnomes?"

"I mean, it was roughly forty thousand lien in antique lawn gnomes."

"I see..."she murmured, "I will. Travel with you. You have. My interest."

"That's alright by me. Got a name?"

"Thousands. Most commonly. The Queen. In Red."

"Bit of a mouthful, that," Yang noted, "Mind if I call you Ruby?"

"If you like."

"Ruby, it is! Come on! I know a good bar around here. Ever heard of a place called Junior's?"


End file.
